Digimon: Forever Destined
by DavCube
Summary: This is the beginning of something that will turn into a teamup of all five seasons of heroes... Read the Prologue to get a full explanation of it. Kurata is still alive, and his hatred has only grown more potent over the years...
1. Prologue

OK, explanation time. I've always wanted to do this sort of massive team-up of the five-season destined teams, and this is my attempt at piecing together some sort of continuity between the latest three seasons, with the first two being an alternate reality, what with Tamers having the card game and whatnot. Frontier is easy to fit, since with the whole resetting of time at the end, it essentially 'never happened,' and Savers' ending leaves room for it to be placed BEFORE the events of Tamers, but AFTER the monster-makers of Tamers actually created the Digimon of their world, which is a pretty wide window when you think about it.

Now with the timeline discrepancy out of the way (this takes place about one year after the end of Tamers, btw) This also stars someone who helped push me to make this fic in the first place, a user on deviantart called Digital-Warkiller, who wrote his own OC Tamers fanfiction. (ie, none of the destined or Tamers, save for Kari, in sight) His character, Regan, holds the crest of life, and has a partner, Lizomon. This fanfic will NOT tie in to his story, save for a few references, and I'm not intending to fit this into his continuity at all, just as how his story doesn't fit into the continuity of other dA people's OC's in THAT story, namely Riza (Riza23) and Kylee Henke, (SonicRocksMySocks) who are both hugely awesome artists that you should totally check out, right now!

Riza has his own other dA account for his Tamers story, 'digimanga,' (I have my own Digimon OC, Mazuro, in his normal gallery, which he was gracious enough to draw for me) which similarly has no tie-ins to the story of the anime. Kylee is just a kickass artist who enjoys creating massive crossover pictures and inserting (usually without Mary-Sue-ing) herself into scenarios of anime and games.

Naturally, I own none of Riza's, Regan's, Kylee's, or Toei's characters. They belong to their respective owners. If I DID own Digimon, I wouldn't have let it die for four years.

ENJOY. XD

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"Humankind fears what it does not understand." That is what they say of people in the world. All too often it has been proven through great hardships. This was no exception.

A man drunk with power feared the beings of the other world.

Both sides stood together to bring him to justice. In doing so, the two worlds nearly annihilated each other. Eventually, the damage was repaired.

However… the initial damage inflicted not just their reality… but another…

"_Tamers, Warriors, Secret Agents… sounds pretty close to being Digidestined to me._"

Ancient evils have returned.

"_They call themselves 'The Demon Lords…'_"

"_Stay back! That's not your Beelzemon!_"

"_That's impossible… how are you still alive?!_"

"_All realities will meld with my own…_"

And it's going to take every destined child ever chosen to stand together as one if there is to be any hope of stopping them.

"_Two Mega-Level Greymon's… this should be good."_

"_That egg… I don't know how, but… I've seen it before._"

"_This time, I'll fight alongside you as flesh and blood, not just a spirit!_"

"_It's been a long time… Suguru…_"

And with every team, there is a leader who, when the time comes, rises up to breathe life into their actions.

"_I had heard of the tenth crest long ago, but never expected it to be true…_"

That time is now.

"_Lizomon… lend me your life spirit… Digisoul… MERGE!_"

Digimon: Forever Destined

"_But… how?! You… you're…_"

"_Ken Ichijouji, yes._"

"_This might be more difficult than I thought…_"


	2. Chapter 1: Unexpected Arrival

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Chapter 1 – The Mysterious Visitors: Wait, I know you!

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Two figures huddled together as they moved through a stark, barren wasteland. Their hoods hid their features from view, as they should have, with the wind blowing a torrent of sand straight into them as they slowly walked forward.

"This must be it," the shorter one stated as they came towards a rocky, deserted cave. In several places, there seemed to be parts of the wall torn away, showing not more rock, but gaping holes staring into nothing but an ambiguous greenish grid. The two tossed their hoods back behind their heads to rest on their necks to fully view what was at the end of the short cave. "It's huge!" the taller man exclaimed in awe.

They were staring at a large mass made up of transparent white and black squares not unlike the other imperfections of the cave, surrounding what looked like a miniature version of a black hole, like a model that would be seen in a science museum. "Is it a… portal? This must be the source… the link we've been looking for," the man continued before turning back towards his comrade. "We won't know what's through there, but it's our only shot to fix this huge mess… are you ready?"

"I never thought I'd have to use this power again… but if it worked once…" he trailed off momentarily as he picked out a small device that easily fit into his palm. "…I'll be ready for it again." He thrust his hand out toward the pixilated hole, the held object glowing a distinct violet along with a spot on his neck, almost hidden by the folds of his hood.

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"So, Takato, anything interesting going on?" Jeri Katou asked the boy beside her as they walked through the park that they'd been walking through since before they could remember. "Well, not really. Sales at the bakery are starting to mellow down, which I'm perfectly fine with right now. It was a madhouse for a really long time," the boy, Takato Matsuki, responded in a genuinely friendly tone. Jeri giggled, moving her eyes away from him toward the setting sun, which was still shining directly in their path. "What about Henry or Rika? Have you heard from them recently?" Takato merely shrugged.

"No, I haven't seen them in the past couple of days. They're probably just busy with their own lives, you know them. Why do you ask?" Jeri flinched at the question, but didn't stop walking. Letting out a long sigh, the smile left the normally-happy-go-lucky girl's face, forcing the same from Takato. She fiddled with her fingers as she spoke. "Well… it's just that… it's almost been a year since… since our partners left, and… well, I… no, it's too silly, forget it," she hastily finished, quickening her pace and blushing furiously. The goggle-head also sped up, reaching forward and grabbing the girl's hand.

"Jeri… come on, it's me here, you can tell me. I won't laugh," he attempted to keep the conversation more light-hearted, but saw it was futile, as he noticed that she was avoiding eye contact with him. "You want us to get together to go and honor them at that field, right? To honor Leomon?" The last several words brought back Jeri's attention, but, still feeling somewhat ashamed, she inadvertently stared at, or rather, through, Takato's feet. "I know they're all right, and everything, but… it still feels like they're gone, you know? Especially him…" Takato then returned with sigh of his own, but one of relief.

"That's not silly at all, Jeri. They may not be gone for good, well, not ALL of them, but… either way, we lost some really great friends that day… I'm sure the others have thought about it, too. I'm sure they'd want to do that too," he explained, successful in cheering his friend up, or so he gathered from the tight hug he received from her, which he gladly returned. "Ooh, thank you, Takatoooo! You're so nice!" she exclaimed in a mocking-childish tone into his shoulder before letting go.

At that point, Takato felt something vibrate in the pocket of his jeans. 'That's… not my cell phone…' he thought to himself, startled. "Oh, a-are you okay by yourself from here, Jeri? I just realized that I have something I need to do," he said, trying not to sound like he was avoiding her needlessly. She nodded, showing him that smile that he had grown to love. "I'll be fine," she shouted to him as he started to jog away. "See you tomorrow!" she waved until he turned the corner, Takato waving back.

'Could it be?' he questioned himself, fishing through his deep pockets to take out his D-Arc, which was indeed the object that was vibrating in a cell phone-like manner. In its months of sitting idle, Takato had nearly forgotten about it, so much so that it almost felt like something foreign to his hands. He hit the arrow buttons until he came across the 'compass' function he used several times before. Its dials were flailing around wildly as he ran along the park's pathway, almost unconsciously running toward Guilmon's old hiding spot. 'Whoa, the thing's going haywire! Where's it pointing to?' On and on he went, still not thinking as to where he was going. The closer he got to the hideout, the less erratic the needle became. In a matter of minutes, he arrived at it, stopping for a second, noting the needle's behavior. Though it was still flailing around quite a lot, it pointed mostly in one direction: the portal he discovered shortly after the Digimon left.

'What's it telling me? Is someone coming through? Is…'

He walked slowly into the hole that Guilmon dug, which had grown slightly wider with the passage of time. There it was, the key to the promise he made to his partner those many months ago. Takato noticed the particles surrounding it were moving around more quickly than usual. 'There IS something coming through! But who?' he thought before yelling out the first person, or rather, creature, that came to his mind.

"Guilmon!"

As if on cue, the portal flashed a brilliant light, startling and blinding the boy, who didn't have his goggles to shield him from it. In doing so, he dropped his D-Arc while he fell backwards, catching himself with his hands on the hard rock floor. As quickly as the light billowed out of the pixilated mass, it dissipated, but Takato wasn't quite able to adjust his eyes yet. All he could hear was voices from the direction of the wormhole, voices he certainly didn't recognize. At least, not at first.

"Well… this doesn't look too bad. It looks a lot like YOUR earth."

"You're right… ah, wait! Someone's there! What should we do?!"

"Calm down… look closer."

'_What are they talking about… who are they?_' Takato frantically flashed grousome scenarios through his head as he put his arms in front of his face, as if to surrender.

"Ah! Is that a… digivice?! There are digidestined here too?"

"My senses tell me that he means us no harm… he is an ally."

Takato's eyes then shot open. '_I know that voice! But… that's not possible!_' He looked up and gasped in pure awe at just who was looking down on him. His straight, navy-blue hair, his sincere facial features, and the simple designs of his shirt that he could see under the cloak he and his companion were wearing were all too familiar to him. He glanced over at the other man, who he didn't recognize. He was somewhat older than either of them, perhaps by about 4 years or so. His short and somewhat spiky brown hair also gave off an air of familiarity, but not nearly in the same way as the other cloaked invader. "W-w-who are you?" he stammered as he shuffled back to the wall of the pen, clutching the D-Arc.

"Please, calm down, mister… er…" The younger visitor trailed off, expecting a response while throwing his hands out to his side to show the sincerity of his actions. Takato swallowed hard, gaining back some of his courage. "Your name first. How can you be here? You're not real!"

"Me? Not real? Uh…" taken aback, he reluctantly took a step backward and looked at his companion, who nodded to signal his approval. 'That's right; this place is different, but still connected to our world. It's all right.' The stranger thought as he closed his eyes and let his arms hang loose, as though he were in a standing meditative state. Wind fluttering from outside blew his hair slightly, almost creating a sort of aura around him while he stood there. In a matter of seconds, the middle of his chest began to glow with a soft pinkish hue. The light gradually took form of a small symbol, a sphere surrounded by two crescent-moon-shaped pieces, like the petals of a flower supporting its nectar-filled cavity. This erased what little doubt remained in Takato's mind as the visitor opened his eyes again.

"That's the… the crest of… but how?! You're… you're REALLY…"

"Yes, Ken Ichijouji," he stated with confidence, allowing the Crest of Kindness on his heart to fade back whence it came. "And you are…?" The younger boy felt a little faint while he slowly picked himself up, still stunned by what he was saw. "M-me? I'm T-Takato Matsuki. This is so weird, I'm talking to an ANIME character over here!" he blurted out, flabbergasted as he attempted to shake the boy's hand without startling him at how much it was shaking. "A-anime?!" Ken asked rhetorically, now just as shocked. "Then again," the tamer chuckled, "Not much of anything should surprise me anymore, not after what my friends and I have been through."

"Enough formalities for the moment," the older visitor spoke, breaking up the lighthearted moment. "Forgive me for the apparent shock, but I need to ask you some questions."

"Uh, ok," the boy answered quickly, still keeping his D-Arc clutched tightly in his palm. "First, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Regan Astrasz. As you might have guessed, neither I nor Ken are residents of your world, rather a parallel version of it. Though now, I suppose those lines run close enough that you could actually, in some way, SEE the other world… but I digress. That device in your hand. Is that a digivice?"

"Yes," he immediately answered, holding it out for him to see. "We call them D-Arc's."

"We? There are more of you? Does this mean you're all Digidestined?"

"Well… yes and no. We sorta USED to be something we called 'Digimon Tamers,' though I guess it was basically the same thing… but after a really big battle, they…" Takato's now-balled fists quivered. "They had to go back to the Digital World on their own. Well… OUR Digital World. They just need rest is all."

"Another Digiworld?!" A small, wavery voice whispered out from what seemed to be under Regan's cloak. "That may be part of the solution to our problem!" Ken laughed, turning back toward Regan. "I think you can let him out now, Regan. It's probably stuffy in that thing."

Regan pushed part of his cloak aside, revealing the hilt of a sword. "All right, then, it seems safe enough," he said, flicking his thumb onto the hilt twice, and immediately, a white sphere popped out of the sword and fell onto the ground. The sphere took shape, and in a span of three seconds, in its place was a small green, slug-like worm. "There, is that better, Wormmon?" Ken asked, picking him up. "Much better, yes."

'Wormmon, too?!' Takato's thoughts raced. 'This is just nuts!!'

"Do you possibly know of a place where we could talk in private more comfortably?" Wormmon politely asked. "I like fertile soil as much as the next Wormmon, but it looks a little cramped in here." Hearing the Digimon speak again snapped Takato out of his daze. "Huh? Oh, yes. My house should do fine, my parents shouldn't be back for a little while." Regan started walking out of the tunnel. "All right. Let's go, then."

'We may be able to talk more comfortably, but… this is still going to be really weird…'

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"So, after that battle, they just started to fade away?" Ken asked, now in his usual springtime attire, his cloak, along with his and Regan's supplies they had brought with them, discarded in Takato's room.

"Right. They were just running out of energy. They spent a little too much time in the human world, connected with other humans. That's what I like to think, at least." Takato explained. The trio didn't talk that much on the way back and he didn't explain much of his battles beyond his first, original fights, before the D-Reaper, before they even traveled to the Digital World. Ken crossed his arms in thought. "Hmm… that sounds good on paper, but in my experience, no amount of time in the human world should have THAT sort of effect on any Digimon. Regan, do you think this might be because of…?" The older teen nodded slowly. "Yes, I'm sure of it."

The lone goggle-head of the group leaned toward Regan, his curiosity peaked. "What, what's going on?" he inquired almost frantically. Wormmon slithered closer to him in response. "I can tell him, Regan. You see, a little over a year ago, several months after our Digiworld was restored, we started noticing some odd behavior from the Destiny Stones that BlackWarGreymon had destroyed. The guardians of the Digiworld were working as best they could to repair them, but there was one in particular that they couldn't touch. The more they tried to fix it, the more it crumbled. Its energy had somehow been changed, altered by some other being that the guardians had never seen before. It simply wasn't of either world." Regan than chimed in to continue the tale. "I trust you're familiar with the purpose the Destiny Stones were forged?" Takato scratched his head, trying to remember that particular arc of the animated series. 'Come on, come on, I know this…' he thought to himself before shortly opening his eyes as he came to his realization.

"OH, right! They held the bond between every other world together, right? So you're thinking something's trying to break through from another world altogether?" Again Regan nodded. "Exactly; The Guardians know all there is to know of the fundamental pieces that make up their world. Over time, the damage has grown worse, and recently, creating portals to these different worlds, one of which being mine and another, which had stronger traces of that unknown energy…"

"…Mine?" He asked rhetorically, already knowing the answer. "Well… what should we do?" Almost as if on cue, the doorbell rang. 'Oh, crud. What should I do about them?!' He thought frantically, getting up and making his way toward the front door without taking his eyes off his guests. "Um… just wait here, I'll make sure it's OK!" he exclaimed before turning around again. Finally, he came to the door, hesitant to turn its handle. 'Please don't be mom, please don't be mom, please don't be mom…' his mind raced while he turned the knob and pushed the frame aside.

"Man, Takato, what's up? You look like you've seen a ghost," a familiar voice said. Takato sighed in great relief and somewhat in frustration as he looked upon the unmistakable visage of his good friend Henry, the tamer who introduced him to taming himself. "Oh, Henry, thank god. Just the guy I wanted to see," he stated, dragging the blue-haired boy inside, quickly looking to see that no one else was coming down the alleyway. "Whoa, hey, seriously, is something going on?" he asked, this time much more seriously, but still keeping his cool. "I'm not sure if even YOU are gonna believe this, Henry…"

This forced a laugh out of him. "Come on, Takato, you know me better than that."

Again Takato sighed, taking heed in his friend's words like the many times he had done before. "All right," he said, before turning his head toward the door to the dining room to yell "It's OK, guys! He's a friend of mine; one that can help!" Immediately, Henry quirked an eyebrow, now more curious than before. "Who are you talking too? A relative you need help telling about… home… work?" he trailed off as Ken, Wormmon, and Regan walked into view, the former waving shyly. "Heh heh… hello."

"You're right… I DON'T believe it…"

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After both Takato and Regan explaining their situation and how the two came to meet, Henry thought for a moment before coming to a conclusion as to how to start this new operation.

"I'm sorry, but I have no idea as to what would be attacking your world or any other. However, we've probably beaten worse things than whatever this guy is."

He paused, allowing the others to take in the information. Wormmon tilted his head slightly. "So what do you think we should do? You know your Digiworld better than we do." The boy folded his hands and closed his eyes, speaking somewhat in a manner of giving a lesson in a lecture hall. "There's really only one way TO do it. We need to go there, assess the situation, and if possible, destroy the source of the disturbance," he explained calmly before standing up.

"And we're going to need everyone to come with us. First things first, we need to find our partners. And to do that, we're going to need a few of my dad's friends, too…"

Ken chimed in with "Why is that?" Henry chuckled nervously.

"Let's just say that our Digital World isn't the easiest place to travel through…"


	3. Chapter 2: Enter Hypnos

I once again apologize for my INSANE amount of time between chapters

I once again apologize for my INSANE amount of time between chapters. Those who put this on alert must hate me right now… but really; this was simply because I had a hell of a time thinking of how the events of this chapter should go down. Locations, dialogue, characters involved, it was all tough choices and overall hard to make. I'm somewhat proud of what I could do in what little free time I had to do it. So for now, enjoy the second part of this team-up. Enter: Hypnos.

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Chapter 2 – Tamers, Assemble! The Red Card's Last Gifts!

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If there was one phrase that Takato wished he could never hear in the same light again in the days following Ken and Regan's arrival, it would be as follows:

"WHAT?!"

That was what he heard from numerous sources, the first being Henry's father, Janyu. After seeing the Child of Kindness face-to-face, he went on a long, daze-like speech about how extraordinary the situation was and how dangerous things probably would be. In the end, though, he agreed that he would attempt to round up the Monster-Makers as well as Yamaki and the other employees of Hypnos.

However, that was only half the battle. There was also the task of rallying the Tamers to prepare them for their imminent journey back to the Digital World. That is, without causing some sort of panic, especially towards those whose interest with Digimon was larger than others. "Hmm… maybe we should just go with what I had in mind before…" Takato thought aloud. "What do you mean?" Henry asked quizzically.

Takato turned away by a small angle and blushed slightly as he spoke, still somewhat uncomfortable talking about him and Jeri. "Well, uh… Jeri sort of brought up that it's been about a year since our Digimon left, and she wanted to have a little service over where they left. You know, in that field?" He explained as calmly as he could. Henry's tone became much more serious, knowing what Takato was attempting to suggest. "I see… just tell them all at once. It's an easy way to formulate a plan of action, that's for sure."

"Indeed," Regan chimed in. "That should work out fine. It'll be great to get to know the rest of your team," he smiled, becoming more relaxed with the world around him since he was staying with the Wong's. Ken would be staying with Takato. "Speaking of 'getting to know…'" the latter spoke, turning towards him in the chair situated in the Wong's dining room. "Regan, what's your story? You've gotten to know a lot about us, what about you?"

This time it was Regan that looked away, only here, significantly more embarrassed as he let out a long sigh. "Um… well, right now, I'd rather not say. It's a long and complicated story that I think would be best if I just told you once I've met your team." Takato didn't let up for a moment before letting the subject die. "Are you sure? That makes sense, I guess, but you don't need to hide anything from us. You're digidestined, like we are, after all," the boy said with a smile, which Regan returned, nodding.

'He's getting better with that pep talking thing...' Henry noted to himself. 'Maybe being with Jeri's changing him in more ways than I thought.' Putting that matter to rest, Henry changed the subject. "So Takato, how did your parents react to Ken staying at your house?" The boy couldn't help but laugh before responding. "Actually, they took it pretty well, I think. After my mom almost fainted, my dad was smart enough to know that stranger things have happened."

"What about Wormmon?"

"Trust me, compared to Guilmon, this is cake."

They continued their meal, keeping their spirits as high as they could.

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One week later…

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Somber anniversaries always seem to ironically take place on the most beautiful of days. This was no exception. A boy and girl ran through the grass, tinted a light orange from the color of the slowly rising sun. One held a covered basket, the other, a bouquet of flowers. As the pair came to the top of a rather tall hill, they slowed to a stop to gaze down on the people below. One, donning his ever-present baseball cap, stood up and waved to them.

"Hey, Chumley! You're late, as usual!" Kazu yelled at Takato. "If there's anything that's not going to change about him, it's his sense of timing," Kenta chimed in. The others stayed silent but joined in waving to Takato and Jeri as they made their way down to the group. "Wow, everyone made it!" Jeri exclaimed. "Even Ai and Mako!" Indeed, combing through the group of Tamers, Takato could make out the small brother and sister playing with some of the cards that the veterans, Ryo and Rika, were letting them use. Susie standing by Henry's side rounded out the group. Rika let Ryo handle the children and walked over to the others. She was wearing her normal outfit, but either out of respect of the occasion, or a freak burst of spontaneity, she wore her hair down instead of in the short pony tail. "It's about time you showed up. You know how I hate waiting," she said in a half-joking tone. "Ah, come on, Rika, we have an excuse, we needed to get the fruit." She only shrugged as a response. "Typical," she ironically cracked.

After the short burst of greetings subsided, the group gathered at the lone tree situated at their makeshift memorial site. Jeri laid her bouquet down upon the tree's base and waited with the rest, as if they were expecting some sort of response. Ryo eventually broke the uneasy silence. "Well… shouldn't somebody say something? I never knew Leomon personally…" A few more seconds passed before Takato reluctantly took a few steps forward to look upon their organic tombstone. "I'm not one to give big speeches or anything, but… Leomon all taught us quite a lot in the short time he was with us. About power… strength… destiny…"

"Friendship…" Jeri slowly walked up and joined her friend, taking his hand. The mention of the word 'destiny' was enough for her to continue where he left off. "He taught me that, too. I had all of you, too, but… more than anything, Leomon taught us to treasure everything that we have. He lived life in the present, gave everything one hundred percent, even when he faced his last hour."

Henry then joined them. "That's right… even when our partners left us, I think we still feel as close to them now as when we biomerged with them, even though we're as physically far away from them as possible," he added, looking as Rika came up on their side as well. "Yeah… I remember what I was like before I even met you guys… thanks to you, and him, I've changed a lot." Finally, the other tamers joined them.

"Hey, I ended up meeting you guys. That's good," Ryo put in.

"And we got partners out of the deal," Kenta added.

"We're kinda having a moment here… don't ruin it," Rika interrupted, forcing the duo back. "So…" Takato attempted to finish. "You told us that we have lion's hearts… but really, you had the biggest one out of all of us. So… thank you… Leomon," And with that, the group bowed their heads in a collective prayer. No tears were shed; the day promised to much to be tainted by such things as sorrow.

Takato then took a few steps away from where they were, causing a few confused looks from the group. "Well, there's just one more thing to do," he said almost matter-of-factly, grabbing his digivice and tossing it high into the air, about three meters, before he caught it. "What's with you?" Rika asked. In response, a figure flew behind where Takato stood, responding to the signal he gave. Some of the group instantly recognized what it looked like, but the younger set that didn't still looked on in awe. The digimon landed and de-digivolved into its owner's arms, and walked towards the group, Takato coming back from the other direction. "We're going back to the Digital World," he said just as confidently. "And he's our escort."

"But… how can he be…" Rika stuttered.

"Heh… will wonders never cease." Ryo boasted, attempting to contain his surprise. However, Kazu and Kenta just stood agape, though in a different fashion than Susie, Ai, and Mako were. "I'm sure most of you know my name, but I'll introduce myself anyway. My name is Ken Ichijouji, and I'm pleased to meet all of you," he spoke in a somewhat timid manner, bowing ever so slightly lower than normal to the Tamers, none of whom had been able to recover from their initial shock, causing Ken to make the next move again. "I've heard about each of you, so let me guess…" he proposed, slowly pacing from one end of the line to the other, first stopping in front of Jeri.

"Let's see, I think I've seen you in pictures that Takato had… you must be Jeri." The girl blushed bright pink and returned Ken's initial bow, still as confused as to who this visitor was, not being brought up with all the knowledge of the Digidestined quite yet. Ken moved to the next Tamer in line.

"That outfit… Ryo, right?" The Digimon Card King extended his hand, which Ken shook with no hesitation. "It's an honor," he responded, half-joking, forcing a bigger smile out of the Child of Kindness before moving on.

"Rika… that shirt gave it away for me." Rika composed herself before responding. "Wait, prove to us that you're really him. Show me something." Ken responded only from pulling out his dark digivice. "Okay, I believe you." She quickly said, defeated.

"Hmm… I forget which is which here, but… Ka-…" before he could even finish, the two fan-boys interrupted him in a frenzy.

"Kazu! I'm Kazu!"

"And I'm Kenta!"

"Holy crap, Ken, I can't believe I'm meeting up with someone from a show, it's like a dream…" their words of amazement melded together on and on, allowing Ken to sneak by to the end of the line, kneeling down to the girl clutching to Henry's knee. "Hello, Susie. Henry's told me lots about you." She shook his hand as well. (AN: I tried to mimic Susie's semi-baby-talk as best as possible) "Pweased to meet you, Mistooh Ken. I heard about you fwom my bwother. You wooked weally cool on top of your digimon." Her innocent compliments forced a chuckle out of him. "Thank you."

"And that leaves you two… Ai and Mako, right?" The two responded by jointly holding up their digivice to him. Afterwards, he backed up to address the group as a whole again. "I'll explain exactly what happened to you in a moment, but I didn't come here alone. I have a friend with me." He explained, starting to gain a bit more confidence.

"Is it Kari? It's Kari, isn't it?! PLEEEEEASE TELL US IT'S KARI!!" Kenta piped up before receiving a cocked fist from Rika. "Boys…" she muttered, allowing Ken to continue. "No, it's someone else." He motioned behind him, waving toward himself. "Come on up, Regan." And down he came, his demeanor silencing the still-blabbing boys before bowing to the Tamers as Ken did. "My name is Regan Astrasz. Like you, I'm Digidestined, but I'm from a different world. I hold…" he held his hand up, and a strange new symbol appeared on it. "…the Crest of Life." With those words, it faded once more. "My world, along with Ken's, and even your own, are in great danger. We need your help."

Just then, Henry's cell phone rang, turning the heads of everyone there. "Uh… sorry, Regan. Just a second," he blurted out, opening it up to see who was calling. "It's… Yamaki?" this caught the attention of the others as Henry answered the call. "Hello?"

"It's been a long time, kid. Do me a favor; Look behind you."

He did so, and the others followed suit, now relieved. There stood not only Yamaki, but the entire team of Hypnos. Yamaki closed his phone and allowed the children to his side. "Let's go someplace a little less somber to plan this out."

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In a matter of minutes, the children and the monster makers all sat either working or around tables in the old building where they initially worked through the entire Chaos incident. Ken and Wormmon once again briefed the team on the conditions of the worlds while others worked in the background, but eventually everyone was up to speed.

"This building hasn't been used in a while, but at least we still have the right technology to work with," Yamaki commented partway through. "Thanks again, Mr. Yamaki, for doing all of this for us; we know you all must be taking a lot of time out of your lives for us to undertake this mission," Henry took the liberty of thanking him for the group. Yamaki waved the verbal sentiments off. "Don't worry about it; it's for a good cause, right? Saving the world is pretty big. Anyway, we already contacted each of your parents, and we're getting some supplies for you to take with you. This time, we'll be with you from the beginning, not just the end," he added in his usual cool and confident tone.

A little more time passed before Regan decided to get the Tamers' attention. "Well, I think it's time you know why I'M here. As you already know, I'm from another world, from which I'm Digidestined. My partner, Lizomon, and I fought many powerful beings from both worlds. Shortly before I came in contact with the portal to Ken's dimension, we battled our most dangerous foe yet: a being known as Ragnarok."

Ryo decided to inquire for the group of Tamers. "So what was this Ragnarok? What made him so dangerous? Was he human or digimon?"

"It doesn't really matter, we destroyed him anyway… it was just a bit more difficult. It's a very long story that you're better off not hearing. In any case, what was strange was that Lizomon just disappeared when we dealt the final blow. He wasn't reconfigured; if he was, he would have just turned into a digi-egg. He IS alive somewhere, I just don't know where he is. That was a few months ago. Since then, in order to combat the enemy, I made this sword in the same design as the weapon he used at Mega-Level. I had copies of Lizomon's data, but not his form, so I copied it into the sword so I could battle on my own before I found him again. Shortly after that, I came across the portal, and the rest, as the saying goes… is history."

The Tamers immediately empathized with him about Regan's situation, since they were all too familiar with the feeling of losing their partners and friends. However, a voice from the higher level cheered them up immediately. "Hey, why's everyone looking so glum? Aren't reunions supposed to be happy occasions?" The Tamers and the room as a whole looked up to see the last member of the monster-maker team arrive, his arm around the shoulder of someone that a few of the Tamers recognized.

"Shibumi! Late as usual, you little daydreamer," Janyu called out. "Mr. Mazuno!" the Tamers chimed in. "Is that… it is! Alice!" Takato yelled and waved to their friend who was the catalyst that helped save the earth from the D-Reaper one year previous. "Don't blame me; you're the ones who asked me to pick her up. Plus, I had another little project to finish," the gifted computer scientist cracked as he walked the girl down to where the others were. Alice found her way to the Tamers, who welcomed her with open arms and greetings abound, Henry explaining her significance to the two 'guests.'

"What brings you here, anyway? Why'd they ask you to come?" Takato asked. "My dad wanted me to help with whatever I could to help you for this project. I may not be able to do much, but I want to at least do more than what I did before," she explained timidly. Rika just came up and clapped her hand on her shoulder. "Are you kidding? Without you and Dobermon's help, we wouldn't even be here right now. But we're glad you're helping out again," she attempted to cheer her up, though the mention of Dobermon's name made her twitch. "You really did, Alice. I never met you, because I was stuck inside that thing the whole time. You ended up saving me, and I never got the chance to thank you," Jeri assisted, Alice looking about the satisfied Tamers before smiling herself.

Shibumi made his way over to where a few of the people were working. "So, what's the story here? What are we building?" he asked the obligatory question. Alice's father took the reigns to answer him. "We still had a copy of most of the data that made up the original Arc and Grani. So, we're working to make a second version that can carry them wherever they want without the need of a light track. And bigger, too. This baby will be like a jumbo-jet in comparison to the first Grani, able to carry at least 100 regular-sized humans at once," he tried to explain in a nutshell. "100?" Mazuno questioned. "Isn't that a little much for just these kids?" The monster-maker just pointed behind him at Ken and Regan. "The way I see it, there may be a lot more where those two came from, so I'm not taking any chances. It'll be driven by voice commands, so it should otherwise function just the same as the old Arc, just as more of a plane than a train riding on data," he finished, confident in his skills. "Sounds good. Call me over if you need anything. I just need to take care of something," Shibumi said, satisfied. With that, he made his way back to the Tamers, reaching into his pocket.

"Henry, I need to give you something," he called out, pulling out a thin object. Henry gasped, instantly recognizing it. "The Red Card! But… why are you giving this to us now?" he thought out loud, taking it regardless. "This was used so that we could enter the D-Reaper, and that's already gone." Shibumi nodded. "Yes, but since I noticed that error that brought you out of your biomerged forms, I've been tinkering with the algorithm to somehow get rid of the effect. Since Janyu called me and told me about what's going on, I hurried up and finished the changes to the card. It's now an all-purpose amplifier and analyzer. Since you're using it to enter other worlds, you can use it to scan anomalies and make it so you can travel through safely. It should even work on the new Grani, allowing anyone inside it to be guarded from other-worldly energy," Shibumi explained, proud in his work. "This could be a pretty good trump card… you're amazing, Mr. Mazuno!" Henry exclaimed, forcing a laugh out of the older man, though it was quickly silenced.

"FREEZE!"

With a loud bang, the door from upstairs flew open, and three female officers ran in, pointing their weapons down at the people below. The woman in the middle stepped forward to address the crowd. "Don't move! We have reason to believe that illegal activities are taking place here. All of you, put your backs to the wall, and…" the officer's threat trailed off as her eyes trailed to the terrified Wormmon, still held in Ken's arms. "Is that… a digimon?!" she cried, causing the other two cops to gasp and look in the same direction. "It is… but…" "It looks so… slimy…"

"Excuse me, ladies, but if you know that's a digimon, you should know who we are, especially these children! We're the ones who stopped the D-Reaper attack, and we need to utilize this technology again for a similar purpose! I hardly see why that's illegal!" Yamaki claimed, frustrated with the sudden interruption. The officers holstered their pistols already and started walking down the stairs. "Did you pick the wrong building AGAIN?" one asked. "It's not my fault, they all look the same on this street…" another retorted in a somewhat childish manner, forcing the third, who seemed to be their leader, to turn and silence them. "Will you both be quiet?!" she yelled before turning to Yamaki. "I apologize for the scare. Please forgive me. We were conducting an investigation, but it looks like our lead was a dead-end,"

The group gave a collective sigh. "It's all right, ma'am," Riley answered for them. "But if I may… what's your interest in digimon?" The leader sat down at the table the children occupied, and gave a sigh of her own. "I remember that whole chain of events over that year very well… I was kicking myself because I wasn't able to do anything to help combat them…" at that point she looked around the table at the Tamers. "So you're the ones who beat that thing, huh? Well, at least you had partners at the time…"

"Too…?"

The three officers then withdrew devices from their bags. Though a different design, the Tamers could still recognize a digivice when they saw one. "The three of us, and our commander, are former members of DATS. You may remember an incident several years ago regarding a large digimon-like monster?" It took a moment, but Yamaki came forward. "Of course… that whole chain of events that led to the arrival of that crystalline monster, and digimon from DATS banded together to defeat it, among others… it was events like that that convinced me to make the old Hypnos… that was you?" He asked, half-stunned, half-nostalgic. The children, however, were still puzzled. "I don't remember anything like that happening…" Ryo mentioned. "You were all quite young at the time, and I'm pretty sure the government advised to keep quiet about the situation, and knowledge of DATS was almost disavowed, but we dug it up for our research." The leader nodded. "That's right. We were basically forced to send our partners back to the Digital World after everything was resolved, but since the whole D-Reaper incident, and now… whatever this is…"

"I think what she's trying to say is, we want to come with you. You have partners, just like we do, and we want to see them again too," the black-haired officer finished for her friend. "Who… ARE you?" the goggle-head of the group asked.

"I'm Miki," the blonde identified herself.

"Megumi," the black-haired woman followed suit.

"Yoshino. But you can just call me Yoshi," the leader finished, removing her hat.

"Well then, ladies, we may just have ourselves an alliance here," Yamaki stated, extending his hand, and Yoshino not hesitating in signing the symbolic contract.

"Even more Digidestined… this should definitely be interesting!" Takato thought to himself, though he was certain the feeling was mutual.


	4. Chapter 3: Celestial Calling

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Chapter 3 – Recruitment! The Celestial Cry!

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In a blackened room, three figures address each other in a hushed manner. The room itself was very lavish, fitting for a king of either world. The windows looked over several pieces of land strewn about an outer space-like landscape, tinted a very pale red, almost pink color. The meeting between them seemed important, but strangely rushed in order to avoid suspicion.

"Ah, good, you made it, my friend."

"It wasn't easy, but I managed. It feels odd being here again after so long."

"We agreed to leave that matter in the past. Now, to the current crisis."

"Very well. Stability is starting to wane. We're starting to have beings travel to us. I felt a few of them pass through several days ago, but something intrigues me about them…"

"Yes, a special aura; one similar to others that aided our world in the past."

"If they have that aura, then there's no mistaking that their intentions are only for the best. They most likely have some sort of grasp over the situation taking place. They are already gathering with the other chosen children, are they not?"

"Correct. However, even with those numbers, it may not be enough. Not even we know exactly what lies at the core of this problem."

"So, what do you propose?"

"I propose a similar action to what was done before: Summoning those that remain. It can only help, and we already know that they'd be willing for it."

The lone female of the trio chuckled.

"Yes, we know that from experience. No offense, of course," she noted, gesturing towards one of her comrades. "None taken," he said, returning her small laugh. "So, are we agreed?" He and the other male digimon stood, ready to put the matter to rest. "We are," he responded, both of them looking towards their friend. "Very well," she said, slowly rising, opening her eyes to reveal a pale glow, staring into the distance.

"It is time…"

Elsewhere, amidst the buildings dotting the city housing Hypnos, similar lights began to appear, although at the moment, dimmed.

"Your new game of destiny has begun…"

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Being the technical members of DATS in the past, Miki and Megumi began the expanded digidestined alliance by aiding the Monster-Makers in creating the new Grani. Meanwhile, Yoshino tried her best to contact the rest of the former DATS agents to join them, while the Tamers continued to recount their stories to their guests. "I was finally able to get in touch with Yushima, so he should be here soon; same with Keenan and Thomas," she explained to her comrades. From behind the trio, the commanding figure of Sampson stood to watch his fellows at work for a moment. "Is that everyone?" he inquired. "I think so… I suppose we should call the Damon family as well. Knowing them, they'll probably want to be in on the operation in some way as well," she explained tentatively, thinking of the other reason they would want to be involved, namely the other member of the Damon family that was still in the Digital World, and the last member of their team: Marcus.

"You know, if I may… Riley, is it?" Miki asked the older agent. "Why is it we're making an Ark for travel to the Digital World? Is this technology not able to generate portals?" She shook her head. "Sadly, no; it wouldn't matter anyway," she noted, raising the DATS agent's eyebrow. "Why?" Riley heaved a sigh. "Since your transfer technology was to time, the Digital World's portals became more and more unstable along with the world itself. The top land of the world is very barren, and data streams toss those who are caught in them every-which-way. There IS a portal leading TO the Digital World, the one where Ken and Regan came from, but it's impossible to go back. Grani has the ability to tear through the virtual sky of the Digital World that leads back to our world, so we might as well use him for a round trip instead of a one-way ticket," Miki closed her eyes in thought at this sort of revelation; she hadn't seen the Digital World since one of the team's initial entries into it, before even Kurata became a threat. "That would make sense. It's been years since we were there, and who knows exactly how a different world evolves itself compared to our own…"

At that point, a specific detail Riley mentioned struck a foul chord in her mind. "Wait a minute… if it could chuck us ANYWHERE when we enter it, how can we find our partners?! The Digital World is huge, and as far as we know, time is of the essence!" the officer said in a panicked tone. This forced a gasp out of several of the others in the complex. "That's right…" Rika echoed. "We don't have the time to scour the Digital World stone by stone!"

"Perhaps I can be of some assistance," a loud, but gentle voice sounded throughout the building; another surprise. Yamaki remained steadfast. "That was from… who are you? Show yourself!" He shouted at the voice.

"S-sir! The monitor, it's being… what is this?!" Riley yelped, jumping aside her computer screen, which was plastered with a large, but simple blackened symbol shone in front of a bright orange light. It seemed to resemble an eye surrounded by two pairs of semicircles with stakes jutting from their midpoints, the vertical semicircles underneath the horizontal ones. The group cautiously approached the monitor, as though it were an easily frightened animal that just might pounce upon them if they made any sudden, unforeseen movements. "Did someone hack our system?" Shibumi asked to make sure of the situation. "No, this network isn't even connected to the internet yet; they wouldn't have been able too…" Megumi confirmed for him, checking the other computers, all the screens covered with the same symbol. "I apologize for the sudden scare, but my methods of communication from the Digital World are quite limited. I am a guardian that oversees the status of the worlds."

No one spoke a word of response that could be understood aside from various types of gasps and whispers, be it from shock, awe, confusion, relief, or a mixture of emotion that is hard to define. "If I'm not mistaken, this is where the Digidestined are gathering, correct?" the serene voice continued. Still no one decided to move, though Rika forcefully nudged Takato, mouthing 'Go!' insisting that he break the silence and be the spokesperson for the group. They exchanged looks, but he overall accepted the invitation. Though he wasn't sure whether or not the eye on the computer could even see it, he held up his digivice just in case. "Yes, we're going to investigate the disturbance between these different dimensions. We figured some of the higher-ups like the Digimon Sovereign would have noticed them as well."

"Very good… time is short. Since the destruction of the Chaos, the stability between the layers of the Digital World has grown worse. However, I'll be able to guide you to your partners to make your journey swifter," the voice explained amidst numerous more, now more enthusiastic, chatter amongst the inhabitants of Hypnos. The noise nearly drowned out the sound of the nearby printer, which apparently was also benevolently hacked by the digimon guardian. Takato retrieved the paper that it spit out, being already closest to it. "I have summoned other Digidestined to meet here. Use my eye as a symbol to guide them here. They will be your initial escorts."

"Thank you, but… really, who are you?" Ken pressed the subject of the voice's anonymity, his first response only a small sigh. "We shall meet soon enough. Your escorts will bear my symbol. Good luck, children," it finished, and as quickly as it appeared, the eye vanished, returning to its original page of Grani's schematics. "More Digidestined… what ELSE did we miss?" Henry thought out loud. Kazu walked up from behind him and up to Takato. "I don't have a clue… but whoever these others are, I bet they were greeted in the same way, with this creepy thing," he proposed, taking the paper with the symbol from his hands, making his way to the door leading outside. "But, if it can only help…" he paused, waiting until he finished applying tape on the paper, sticking it to the window pane of the door, in plain view of those walking outside. "…at least it makes the place stand out." Jeri chuckled at the remark, but most of the others just rolled their eyes.

Regan was lost in thought from this new development, as was Ken, both of them trying to piece together what they could out of what few similarities there seemed to be between the two Digiworlds. "Takato, you mentioned these Digimon Sovereign before, but from what I can see, you weren't familiar with that other digimon just now… who are they?" Ken asked, deciding to bring the topic back to the Tamers' past. The goggle-head sat back down, once again recounting events past. "During the whole misunderstanding before the emergence of the D-Reaper, one of the Sovereign attacked our world using his servants, the Devas. There are four of them, each looking over a quadrant of the Digital World," he explained. This seemed to peak Ken's interest, though he waited to react. "The one we ended up fighting was Zhuqiaomon, but then Azulongmon set up the truce. Then there's…"

"Wait, Azulongmon?!" Ken interrupted, snapping his fingers as he made the connection. "We have similar guardians in our world, one of them BEING Azulongmon, remember? He saved us from BlackWarGreymon, and gave Davis and I the ability to go beyond champion-level DNA-digivolution." At that remark, Takato slapped his forehead, surprised at himself for not making the connection before. "Of course, I can't believe I didn't see that! I guess we were all just caught up in the whole conflict along with explanations and whatnot. But why do you bring that up all of a sudden?" The look of sincerity started to fall from the other boy's face as he thought into the matter. "I was trying to find exactly what sort of parallels our two Digital Worlds may have, and if the same territorial deviations are in place, than we might have an easier time at least figuring out where to start, if our new escorts lead us to any area you don't know," he explained further. The group continued to exchange theories and memories as the hours ticked away; it would be much later in the current day before the other DATS members would arrive. Not only that, they weren't even sure when their Digiworld escorts would surface either. All they could do was wait.

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A limo meandered its way through the city streets, allowing little time in between stops nearly every half-minute. In its roomy cargo space sat the Norstien siblings, Thomas and Relena, the former firmly grasping the digivice he'd been hanging onto with his comrades. A shrill ringing sound interrupted the somewhat tense silence between them, and Thomas immediately reacted by opening up his cell phone. Taking a brief second to read who was calling, he answered it. "This is Thomas. What's the update?" he asked.

"I just got a call back from Yushima; he says he's at the Damons' along with Keenan and his family. A few more technical eyes would never hurt, so do you think you could pick them up and take them here?" Yoshino's voice informed him. Though she wouldn't have seen it, Thomas nodded. "All right, that's good. I'll get them, thank you," he confirmed quickly. "Oh, and by the way, you'll notice which building WE'RE in by that eye-symbol I told you about on the door," she said. "Well, that WILL make it easier. We'll be there shortly, then," and with that, he ended the call, and rolled down the window separating them from the driver. "Can you find your way to the Damon's residence from here? We'll be picking up our friends there," he asked the servant. Without turning around, he nodded and punched in the location on the limo's GPS. "Of course, sir," he stated, and without another word, continued on his way.

Thomas rolled the window back up and gazed out the one in the door alongside his sister. She hadn't been together with a good amount of the DATS team since they stood together in the aftermath of the final battle against King Drasil. (AN: If you couldn't tell by now, I'm sticking to dub names. Sorry, sub purists. But anyway, it's basically just for consistency's sake. The only real term that I'm going to borrow from the subbed version is 'Digisoul,' because really, the whole DNA thing was just laziness. They try to pass it off as something similar, but come on; it just doesn't sound nearly as cool. Another note, now that I'm bringing in Relena, as far as Savers goes, this takes place about a month or so after that blurb in the Savers finale. A recovery period, so to speak.)

"You haven't seen the Damons' home before, have you, Relena?" he gently asked rhetorically, knowing full well she hadn't because of her only being cured of her illness just in recent months. She shook her head. "I can't wait to see them again, though! This is all so exciting!" she exclaimed, and indeed, her excitement was almost palpable. Thomas could feel it as well, though in a different sense than his sister.

'Gaomon… and especially you, Marcus… we're coming. So you'd better show up,' he thought to himself, smirking slightly. Time seemed to pass both slowly and quickly at the same time, since it only took about 15 minutes for the limo to arrive at the Damon house, with Thomas still lost in thought, startled by the call of his driver. "We've arrived, sir."

"Oh… so we have. Come on, Relena. We'll have a look around before we leave," he offered, getting out and offering his hand to help take his sister onto the sidewalk with him. "We won't be long; keep the engine running," Thomas instructed, the driver tipping his hat before flipping switches around his seat, locking the doors and reinforcing the windows, among other safety measures. On the other end of the sidewalk, Thomas rang the doorbell to the modest, middle-class-style building. "It's open!" Sarah's voice shouted from the inside, signaling for the siblings to enter. They made their way to the dining room, where his compatriots awaited, eight in total: the old general Homer Yushima, the 'legendary' Spencer Damon, with his wife Sarah and daughter Kristy in tow, and the four members of the Crier family, the two professors and their children, Keenan and his recently-born sister Yuka, who sat in a high-chair, watching Thomas and Relena walk in. "It's been a long time," they said jointly.

"Yes, it has," Keenan's father answered.

"For all of us," his wife added, her toddler giving a juvenile wave.

"Good to see you again," Homer replied in kind.

"Welcome," Sarah greeted them in her usual overly-casual way.

"Thomas!" Both Kristy and Keenan shouted, almost leaping out of their seats to approach him and jump into a bear hug with the Norstien's.

"You need to keep in touch more often, Thomas," Spencer changed the subject. "I didn't even know about your success until I saw you on TV receiving your prize," he teased, slapping the doctor on the back, who laughed nervously. "Well, I was a little busy with the research…" This forced a chuckle in return. "Heh, I'm just kidding,"

Keenan and Kristy took notice of Relena along with the rest of the small crowd. "You've… gotten taller," Kristy changed her initial observation, trying to stray away from the topic of her surgery and recovery, since she was likely asked it numerous times since then to begin with. She just giggled, and then answered "So have you two."

After the brief exchanging of pleasantries, the group of ten DATS members and allies took what they could pack, (the majority of it being food and cooking supplies that Sarah insisted they take to Hypnos) and rode over to the address that Yoshino gave them. As the limo came to a stop, Thomas took notice of the paper with the symbol taped to its window. "Well, they were right, that DID make it stand out…" he thought out loud, getting out and starting to unpack. Around that same moment, another group of young teens walked around the corner of the block. One of them looked at his cell phone, then at the door, and finally at Thomas, who was making his way to the door. The boy signaled a nod to the other five and approached him.

"Excuse me, sir? Do you need some help with that?" he kindly asked.

"Thank you, but no, we can manage," he doctor replied, but stopped where he was when the boy held up his cell phone. Thomas looked up at the symbol on the door and back at the phone, back and forth quickly. The screen of the phone had it as well. 'They're the same… Yoshi said they'd "bear the symbol…" so...' he thought, putting down the bag he was carrying to finish it aloud. "So you must be our 'escorts,' then?"

"We have the same destination, so please, let us help," the leader joked, allowing the others to open their own cell phones to prove their point.

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The DATS members entered and acquainted themselves with the Tamers, Hypnos, the Monster-Makers, and their other-worldly guests, the groups already briefed on the situation and people involved through contact from their colleagues. Afterwards, they allowed the newest group, the sextet of 'escorts,' to give their side of the story. Dolphin took the initiative to talk with them first, seeing as they would more or less be responsible with directing his new pride and joy, Grani II. "So, first things first, what do you know about what's going on?" he inquired. Again, the group's goggle-wearing leader took it upon himself to begin.

"Well, this morning, we had gotten a message from a digimon that we know very well. Her name is Ophanimon," he stated, holding up the phone again. "This is how she communicated with us before, and today was the first in about three years. Ophanimon is one of three Celestial Digimon that oversee the Digital World," he explained. The group acknowledged his explanation, but none of them were sure how to respond. The boy took their silence as a signal to continue. "She told us that there was a state of instability between several different worlds and dimensions, and to meet others that she had also contacted, so we could start searching for a place she called 'The Blooming Rose' before we corrected… whatever is wrong," he tried to comment, though nonchalantly, but expected, seeing as he had no knowledge of exactly what was causing the current dilemma, nor the exact location of 'The Blooming Rose.'

Yamaki then took the stand and tried to connect the dots. "I suppose that's one explanation out of the way… how did you come into contact with this Ophanimon before?" The boy seemed to gain a little more confidence in his speech. "I guess we should start by at least telling you our names. I'm Takuya Kanbara," he said, motioning to pass the introductory torch around. Two of the other boys stepped forward. "My name is Koji Minamoto," one of them said. "And I'm his twin brother, Koichi Kimura," the other added. The others took notice of their similar looks as the other three newcomers stepped forward.

"Just call me J.P," the tall, chubby one of the group cracked.

"I'm Tommy; it's great to meet you," the shortest of them greeted with enthusiasm.

"My name's Zoe," the lone girl of the group finished again, passing it off once again to Takuya. "Three years ago, Ophanimon summoned us to the Digital World in order to save it from another Celestial Digimon that was corrupted by an ancient evil known as Lucemon. She called us Digidestined, because we were able to bond with the spirits of warriors that defeated Lucemon in the past," he explained in a nutshell. "Since then, those spirits have been a part of us, one way or another. Maybe THEY'RE the actual escorts, and not us," Takuya joked.

At that moment, a bright flash came from the pocket that Takuya just put his cell phone back into. "Whoa!" he pulled it out, noticing that the others were doing so as well. "You guys feel that?" he asked, the others responding in kind. Shibumi stepped forward. "What's going on?" The light from the phones grew brighter, as though Shibumi had commanded it. For the 'escorts,' the situation was somewhat familiar. Pieces of the cell phone fell away and gradually reconfigured itself into a larger model as the light faded. The group spontaneously chuckled as they looked at their familiar D-Tectors. "Digivices… so they ARE Digidestined!" Ken noted, just as pleasantly surprised.

"Does that answer your question?" a deeper version of Takuya's voice seemed to emanate from the device, catching the teens' attention. They instantly recognized it, and Takuya nearly had to fight back tears as the image of his long-long companion appeared in the small screen, smiling back at him. "Agunimon!" Similar cries of heartfelt relief were heard as the others in the room attempted to gather closer around the warriors.

"Lobomon… welcome back."

"Kazemon… _molto brovisimo_!"

"Kumamon!"

"All right, Beetlemon!"

"Lowemon… well met, old friend."

"I see you've gathered with the others. We'll catch up later. Come to the Digital World as soon as you can. Once you pass through, we'll guide you to The Blooming Rose," the warrior spirit instructed, leaving just as quickly as he appeared. Takuya looked up from the digivice and addressed the crowd. "Well, you heard the 'mon," exclaimed the goggle-head of the warriors. Yamaki smiled brightly. "Right. Let's get to work."

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From that point forward, the Digidestined Alliance worked tirelessly to assist the varieties of scientists to construct Grani II, while the children acquainted themselves with each other, their quests, and their powers. It would be a couple more days until it was completed. In that time, like the DATS personnel and Tamers before them, the Hypnos crew contacted the warriors' homes and dealt with their parents, with some help from the teens in some cases.

"So, you guys basically BECOME Digimon in order to fight? That sounds pretty cool!" Ryo commented to J.P, who accepted the praise shyly, scratching the back of his neck and chuckling nervously. "Hey, fusing with a Digimon doesn't exactly sound bad, either," he retorted, receiving a similar response.

"You created your partner yourself? Awesome! You must have put a lot of thought into that super-cool knight Digimon!" Tommy responded to Takato's initial explanation regarding Guilmon. He was taken aback by that remark at first, but remembered that he was broadcasted fighting (in more ways that he'd like to admit) during the D-Reaper battles. "Heh heh… well, to be honest, I only designed two levels. Everything else was just totally spontaneous, I don't think I could have come up with that even if I tried!" he quipped, knowing his own creative limits.

"What levels are the Digimon that you become?" Thomas asked Koichi, willing to learn everything he could about these new forms of evolution. "Um… what do you mean by 'levels?'" he asked, guilty of being out of the loop with the rest of the warriors. (AN: The 'Hybrids,' as the subs called them, weren't given any specific level, so the warriors had little need to learn of the levels in the first place. To my knowledge, they never mentioned them throughout the story.)

"Whoa, you were raised in the Digital World for almost your whole life?! That must have been pretty hard," Kazu said in awe, remembering the toil he went through in scouring the Digiworld before. (AN, again: I'm choosing to 'adapt' Keenan's speech to be slightly less caveman-like, what with the time skip and everything. Not getting rid of it entirely, though.) "It wasn't so hard; I had Falcomon and my other guardians teaching me. I just wish that I wasn't brought up with first hating hu-mons. But it wasn't anyone's fault," he explained. Kazu tried to contain his laughter at Keenan's flubbed speech.

"A Burst Mode, you say? Heh, we could have done with that while fighting freaks like the Royal Knights," Koji said at the mention of the mode. This caught Yoshi's attention. "You fought the Royal Knights, too?" she asked, bewildered. "Well, they were doing what they thought was right, since the balance of power had shifted so greatly at that time. I'm sure it was the same for you," the bearer of light offered. Yoshi understood, thinking back to when a large number of them stood against their king.

"Did you ever notice that there are so few girls in this little group?" Zoe noted, looking around the room. Rika just scoffed it off. "I don't really care. That just means the ones they DO pick are the cream of the crop, right?" Zoe just gave a smirk back.

"Amazing what technology can do nowadays…" Yushima murmured as he gazed about the room. Henry walked alongside him to offer him company. "Hey, from what I've heard, you fought just as well alongside the rest of your friends. That has to count for something!" the wiz-kid said, getting Homer expression to warm up a bit. "Yeah, I still got it, despite this old body of mine."

"So you use cards… and you're tied to the essence of your two planets?" the confused Takuya tried to clarify, pointing at Jeri for the first part of his question, and Ken for the latter. Both of them stifled laughter. "More or less," the Tamer answered. "You've got the basic idea. You're not that different, though. You're tied to elements, which are essential to the world as well," Ken offered his similarity, Takuya pausing a second to analyze it. "Ahh… yeah, that makes sense."

"You know, you're pretty cute for a worm," Kristy offered, talking from a hunched position, her head balanced on top of crossed elbows on top of the table that Wormmon was standing on, who blushed brightly. "O-oh… r-r-really??" he stammered, utterly stunned by the remark.

"You seem to be isolating yourself over here," Spencer said, walking over towards Regan, who, at the moment, wasn't talking to any of the children, but welcomed the conversation regardless. "Is there anything wrong?" He waved his hand along with his head. "No, not really. I've just been through a real lot of trouble lately, and then all this started to happen. It's just a lot to take in, and I prefer to do things like that on my own," the child of life explained, but instantly tried to take that last bit back. "N-not that I don't appreciate what all of you are doing! I'm just saying that I'm… used to it, I guess," he corrected, his tone turning somewhat somber. Spencer sat down next to him. "There are others like you in your world, right? You let them help you, didn't you?" he asked, hushing his own voice as well. "Of course there are, and they did. Most of the time it wasn't really that serious, and I just didn't want to drag them into something that was none of their business. But… when my partner disappeared… I just felt a lot more alone. I guess that's why," Regan realized, picking up his high-tech sword and hitching it to his belt while getting up, Spencer following suit. "I can't say I know the feeling… but I know others that did. Losing someone like that is very hard… but you'll get through it; especially with us on your side," he offered, putting a hand on Regan's shoulder, who smiled softly back at him.

Similar conversations took place throughout the following days, until finally, the new Ark had its finishing touches completed, and the group of technicians and warriors looked on as Shibumi connected Takato's D-Arc to the system, similar to Grani's first arrival. "Here we go, then!" he cried, and at his command, a blue card appeared in his free hand, which he immediately swiped through the slot, and allowed the others to go to work. "Coordinates are accurate within 97; Grani II should be bio-emerging 70 meters west of this location…" Dolphin paused to point out an adjacent window that was behind the building, part of the park in which the Tamers' Digimon left before. "…take a look," he said, and those not tied to their monitors followed his suggestion. Slowly, but surely, a large digital field began to form.

"Bio-emergence is imminent, approximately 20 seconds remaining," Tally read out.

"Grani II is remaining stable, no anomalies to account for," Riley added.

"I can see him!" Takato shouted out.

"Bio-emergence in three… two… one…" Janyu looked up from the monitor and looked outside with the Digidestined, their cheers drowning out any further commentary from the Hypnos team as the field started to disintegrate. From within it stood a colossal structure, resembling the past Grani in body from its head to its wings, but retaining its original back opening. The only true difference was its sheer size; Grani II stood nearly as wide, as tall, and as long as two American school buses, easily able to carry all of those with a digivice in the room. After a few moments, the cheers quieted down. "Well, what are you all standing around for, get over to him!" Dolphin exclaimed. On that note, the small army made their way out to the landing site with their supplies.

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Once everything and everyone had been accounted for, Yamaki addressed the group once again. "I thank you all for your time and effort that you put into this project thus far. I also thank you childr…" he corrected himself. "No… the Digidestined for their bravery in taking the task they're about to undertake. I know your family and friends must be extremely proud of you," he continued, taking some of the Tamers by surprise. 'He's become quite the speaker…' Henry noted.

"I suppose the only thing left to do before you begin your journey is to figure out exactly who is going…" he trailed off, allowing a makeshift roll call to begin. The 'escorts' made the first move, stepping closest to the stairway leading into the ship. "Well, we have orders, so we can't exactly stay," Koji joked, looking as Ken and Regan also made their way towards them, the former holding Wormmon in his arms. "We have you beat there, this world isn't even our home!" Ken chuckled at his own remark, the warriors and Regan doing so as well. The lion's share of the Tamers came next.

"I'm going too; Henwy will pwotect me!" Suzie proposed before anyone could say a word against it. She had a point; she was already being held onto top of Henry's shoulders as he walked over with the others, Rika and Ryo on either side of him. Kazu and Kenta ran towards Ken, while Takato took Jeri's hand again and walked with her toward Grani II.

"We have lots of people with us, so we can go!" Ai said, taking Suzie's example.

"Yeah, we're gonna find Impmon again!" Mako sealed the deal and trailed behind the other Tamers.

"I'll go too," another voice joined the group, surprising a few faces, especially Dolphin. "W-what?! But Alice, you don't even have a digivice, let alone…" Alice interrupted him, strong in her resolve. "If they can find their partners again, than so can I!"

"But… Alice…" Dolphin hung his head, defeated, remembering some of the mystic events of the D-Reaper incident as well as the final battle of DATS. "All right, you can go. Just be careful," he said, letting go of her arm and allowing her to pass.

"If she's going, then I'm going for Biyomon too!" Kristy shouted, standing alongside her father, though her mother looked halfway towards shocked. "Honey… are you really sure?" Kristy put on her usual serious face, but Spencer answered for her. "Ha ha… I had a feeling you would… so I made you this," he bent down to hold his hand out to his daughter, which held a pink-trimmed Burst Digivice, with black plating instead of white like Yoshi's. (AN: Remember, it was Spencer that designed the Digivices for DATS.) The young girl looked at it in awe, holding it up to the afternoon sun. "You don't need to worry, Sarah. I'll be going too, and Marcus will be there as well. We'll protect her with our lives," he said with confidence, walking up to his wife to caress her cheek with his hand. "I promise," he finished, watching as Sarah took her hands around the one Spencer had on her face. "I know… all right then,"

Thomas smiled as he looked back at the other DATS agents, taking it all in, matching the looks of confidence on their faces. "No objections from you?" Yoshi shook her head. Miki and Megumi gave a joint peace sign. Keenan, now in a sort of tailored version of the clothes he had worn during his Digiworld upbringing, pumped his fist with a smirk. "I may be old, but you can't keep me out of this," Yushima cracked. Sampson walked up and shook Thomas' hand. "Count me in. You've become a fine leader, Thomas," he added, beaming at his former employee. "Thank you, sir," the doctor answered, turning back around to end the march to the ship. "That settles it, then," he said with a befitting sense of finality, leaving nothing else for anyone to say.

Before the team of scientists that created, shifted, and traversed the alternate world of digital monsters, twenty-eight destined soldiers stood ready and willing to face any odds to save as many worlds as it took to set things right. Six warriors, Eleven tamers, Nine former government agents, and Two strangers then began the short, yet somehow agonizingly long trek up the boarding stairs, each of them waving and saying their good-byes in various emotions as they carried their supplies up with them. Eventually, the door slowly closed, and the digidestined took a short tour of their trans-dimensional airship.

Grani II consisted of two levels. The lower level was the main passenger area, covering most of the space for seating of various sizes, the rest of it being taken by facilities such as bathrooms and a small kitchen. The upper level held sleeping quarters along with the bridge, complete with a wide view in front and behind their flight path. When the group was satisfied in their tour, Takato took the initiative, seeing as he was Grani's true partner in all his incarnations, and approached the control panel, trying to remember exactly what the Monster-Makers instructed him to do. It was relatively simple; he first took out Shibumi's Red Card, locating the on-board card slot and swiped it through. A low humming noise issued forth as the ship started to power up. A booming voice came over the ship's speakers.

"Input flight coordinates," the familiar voice of Grani asked its passengers. Takato wasn't sure what to do next, looking at the others standing around him for a hint.

"Do you want to say it?" Ken came up from behind him with his D3 being put in his face. "Or should I?" At that point, Takato beamed at the opportunity, taking out his D-Arc.

"How about at the same time?" The goggle-head offered, but before Ken could respond, Takuya surprised them with a similar sneak-up. "Sounds good to me," he said, D-Tector in hand. Spencer walked up to them as well with his Burst Digivice. "Same here," he joined in. Lastly, Ken motioned towards them from Regan's direction. "You, too!" he offered, and the child of life smiled and he made his way over to the group, for the first time, drawing his sword. The five of them stood in a circle, holding their devices in a square-like arrangement, Regan's sword parting through one side.

"To our friends!" Spencer started off.

"To our destiny!" Ken added.

"To the Digital World!" Takato shouted.

"To the Blooming Rose!" Takuya finished, before the five different destined soldiers jointly cried their last command.

"Digi-Port, OPEN!!"

The ship rumbled and tilted as it left the ground, slowly lifting itself to the skies above them, which, as it did in the last year, opened up to reveal a portal to the Digiworld. Grani II passed through it, and in a matter of moments, the new journey had officially begun.

(AN: Egad… I'm surprised how long this ended up being. And this story is barely even underway yet!! Next time on Forever Destined: another parallel with Ken's world is drawn! The Blooming Rose revealed!)


	5. Chapter 4: Crossing Over

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Chapter 4 – Onward! Gathering of the Chosen!

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Though the ship traveled with little turbulence, it wasn't the fastest piece of hardware in either world. After first passing through the portal, about a half an hour had passed before the group received word from the spirits again. Although, this time, it wasn't through the tiny screens of the D-Tectors. Instead, the image of Agunimon appeared on a large hologram-type screen situated above the control panel.

"Whoa! Am I on?" the warrior of flame's projection walked around a bit, getting used to the new hardware. Takuya moved himself closest to the screen. "We're reading you loud and clear, Agunimon," he responded, trying to stifle his laughter at the fidgeting spirit. Finally, he was able to find a suitable position to continue the transmission. "There we go… sorry, I'm not really used to this thing," he said nervously. "Well, I guess we can't say that the research Hypnos did on the D-Tectors were for nothing, huh?" the flame-bearer rhetorically asked not only his spirit, but the group around him. "In any case, since they did, I'm able to give you the set of coordinates to where the Blooming Rose is," he explained, his image fading away to a map of the Digiworld that Agunimon moved into the screen's viewpoint. "It's here," he indicated, two spots flashing on the map, the first in a corner of it in the shape of Grani itself, showing the soldiers' location. The other flashing red dot was on a small piece of land, most likely a tropical island, not far from where the ship's symbol was blinking. Again the image faded, but just minimizing into a smaller version of itself on the corner of the screen. Agunimon took the stage again.

Before the spirit spoke again, though, Thomas questioned its holder. "Are you familiar with that area?" he asked him. "Not really, we didn't exactly have a map when we were traveling the Digiworld," Takuya confessed. "Regardless, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised when you get there; just put the ship on autopilot. You're almost there already," Agunimon enticed the chosen with a smile before the image faded out completely. Takuya looked at the screen of his D-Tector. The symbols of the spirits that he was entrusted with flashed before him; flame, earth, and wood. "What could he mean…" he questioned in his mind, looking around at the other soldiers around him. "Maybe it has to do with their partners… it has too. Right now, Regan aside, we're the only ones capable of fighting," he assumed before putting the digivice away.

The Digidestined around him talked in an excited manner, and rightfully so. Though some of the conversation was uncertain, since none of them could think of a particular reason why they were summoned to this specific location. In a short manner of minutes, the vessel slowed down and the attention of its inhabitants was directed to the many windows. Grani was indeed approaching an island, but not quite as tropical as the map initially suggested. Many gasps of surprise and wonder were heard from the soldiers as the ship came to a safe landing near the top of a hill leading down toward a vast field. Scattered around it were hundreds, perhaps thousands of digi-eggs and baby digimon.

"Primary Village…" Rika said barely above a whisper. "Our Digital World has a Primary Village!" Though some of the others were able to understand the reference, several others were still in the dark. "What is she talking about?" Sampson asked the Child of Kindness, who, although at first somewhat intimidated by the former commander's visage, answered quickly and calmly. "My Digital World has an area dedicated to where digimon are reborn once they die; they call it the Primary Village there," he explained.

Koji then noticed another spectacle out the window. "Of course, it all makes sense…" he said, slowly walking over to it. "A place where new digimon first bloom…" at this pause, he pointed to a structure floating in the sky covered by dark pink clouds. "Under the Rose Morning Star: The Blooming Rose," he finished, catching the attention of the other warriors. Indeed, Ophanimon's domain hovered like a beacon above the field of green dotted with white, bathing the island in its light. Understanding the symbolism, the group prepared to venture into the sacred grass in order to learn more of this holy place. The giant doors slowly opened, and the digidestined once again stepped foot onto Digiworld soil. Many different kinds of waves of nostalgia washed over the small army as they walked in between the many different eggs. There didn't seem to be another, more adult soul around, and none of them said a word as they went on, so as to not awaken the sleeping babies. That is, until another familiar voice shouted from one side.

"Well met, my friends!" the deep voice boomed, the group turning to see a long dragon-like digimon approaching them. His nearly transparent body and armored head, touted by a large horn and majestically long beard gave an aura of supreme sincerity and wisdom that could only belong to the most benevolent of the Sovereign, Azulongmon. "I trust your journey was swift and uneventful?" he inquired as swooped closer to them, looking around to pick out those he once knew, and already knowing the answer to his question. "So, that's Azulongmon, I take it?" Koichi whispered his question to Kenta, on his right, who nodded. "I recognize some of you… some more than others. But I am pleased to meet all of you," the sovereign said with a nod of his own, perhaps to replace an ability to bow, what with his long, near-limbless body. "I'm sure you're wondering why the Celestial Digimon and the warriors called you here, and I shall tell you all in due time," he explained. "But there are other priorities first…"

The sovereign then turned his head about to look behind him. "I believe at this moment, your need for these far outweigh your need to save these worlds…" he trailed off as a large flock of small creatures started flying in from the horizon. They began their descent in a large circular formation, with several other scattered, different creatures within it. As they came closer, the group could see that they were kept afloat via a barrier that the creatures were somehow creating and maintaining. "After all…" Azulongmon continued, turning his attention back to the soldiers. "It's difficult to save us at all when you don't have anyone to fight with," at that mention, the group as a whole ran closer to him, and as a result, the flock and their cargo, their excitement reaching its peak. Finally, the creatures approached the ground and dispersed the barrier, emitting chirps of glee as they began to fly about the area in jubilation, matching that of the digidestined. "Digi-Gnomes…" Jeri said under her breath, though the confusion of the others was put on hold for the moment.

Azulongmon's hints were right on the money; his escorts carried the partners of the Tamers that had gone back, and those of the DATS crew that had done the same. Although Marcus, Agumon, and of course either Leomon were nowhere to be found, the island was all at once ablaze with emotional cries of reunion; too many to count. Guilmon nearly tackled Takato while Renamon received a bear hug of her own from Rika. Henry twirled Terriermon around, although Suzie nearly chocked Lopmon. Calumon giggled as Jeri nuzzled his cheeks, as did MarineAngemon for Kenta, while Kazu gave Guardromon a hearty fist-pump and Ryo did the same for Cyberdramon. Ai and Mako nearly smothered Impmon, failing to make a small enough entrance for them. Gaomon and Thomas simply nodded at one another before exchanging glances at the others, still as formal with each other as they ever were. Kudamon took his place on Sampson's shoulder, almost purring as a reaction to the petting strokes he received. The dual PawnChessmon received a few welcomes from their owners, still mute, though not for the same reason as the soft-spoken Kamemon, who only smiled as Yushima approached him. Kristy and Yoshi hugged their respective partners, the former showing off her new digivice, and Keenan greeted Falcomon with a short exchange of blows, a show of respect between the fighters brought up as brothers. After several minutes of these introductions and reunions, the group as a whole turned their attention back to the one that called them there.

"I'm sure you're all curious as to how this new part of the Digital World came to be," Azulongmon stated, preparing to tell another tale to the digidestined. Similar to how he explained what made up the Digital World before, he made images appear in the ground beneath him. "It was several years ago, after the Digital World was reborn, thanks to the Legendary Warriors and the carriers of their spirits here," he motioned toward that group, some of whom began to blush. In the grass, snow white flowers bloomed in an arrangement shaped into the continents of the world they were in, and three more for each of the moons. "Time passed, and soon, our world itself began to evolve and change in ways we never even imagined. That was when the Chaos first appeared," he closed his eyes as he spoke.

The flowers that made up the moons wilted and were almost instantly blown away by a sudden gust of wind. "After its retreat, however, the worst was yet to come. The world was falling apart, and it was the cause of a new enemy, something not of this world. First, it destroyed the moons, taking away our ability to reconfigure. Then, it began to corrode and separate our already-scattered world even further," he said, the flowers again following suit. "However, after the Chaos was destroyed forever, thanks to the Tamers, we have at least begun to try to repair the damage. The first step was made by the spirit of someone I'm sure some of you recognize…" again, at his command, another wind blew past, but of a different sort. Streaks of red and blue circled around each other until they converged on the ground in front of the Tamers.

'I recognize that light… someone with that kind of power... has got to be…' Ryo thought as the light surrounding the convergence point of the streams faded, and from it emerged a large quadruped digimon resembling a real-world dog. It was Alice's turn to shed tears as she approached her beloved companion. "Dobermon… it's really you…" she whispered as she cradled her arms around her friend's massive neck, attempting to stifle her sobs of joy as much as she could. The other Tamers were shocked at this revelation, specifically the four that received his gift of evolution that transcended the digital boundaries. "But I thought he'd given his life to allow us to biomerge!" Henry stated half as a question to Azulongmon.

"Dobermon's spirit was not extinguished on that day. He was created by us since the beginning as a means transporting data and coding, similar to Calumon and his powers of digivolution. A part of Dobermon returned here and as his data began to slowly repair itself, he devoted some of that data to creating this island that you now stand upon. In time, the warriors, and eventually, your partners here, became its guardians. At one point, Dobermon would finally be able to take his previous form, and that was what we waited for before we called you here," the Sovereign explained, but jerked over toward Ken and Regan. "Though the arrival of other digidestined hastened that decision as well," he added, chuckling. Alice finally released her grasp on Dobermon's mane, stroking the top of his head. Her hand was nudged off as the supernatural digimon raised its head and directed Alice's attention to an object that was wedged between the rows of sharp teeth just lightly enough as to not damage it. "I've kept this safe for you, Alice," the dog's voice beckoned, and she gently moved her fingers in between his jaws to pry out the new gift. She gasped once more, and thrust her arms around her partner again, clutching onto Dobermon with one hand, and a D-Arc in the other.

The Tamers walked over and congratulated their new teammate, now fully instated as a member of the Digidestined, but were interrupted by Azulongmon's booming voice, clearing his throats loudly to gain back their attention. "Are there any questions before I go on?" he asked them, keeping his patience in check. Thomas stepped forward to answer. "Just one: Who is this enemy you speak of?"

"That's something I was hoping you would know. We're not at all sure. It had no solid form, like the Chaos, and seemed intent just on destruction. It was all so quick, but we managed to analyze what we could of it to track his whereabouts… until recently, that is," Azulongmon went on, pausing to allow the group to take in these events and put their own pieces together in the hope that they could come up with something that he and his fellow deities could not. Henry took the initiative next. "When did this enemy first appear?" he asked. The sovereign sighed, taking his own time to think.

"If my memory is correct, it was during the crisis that almost collided both of our worlds. He was gone by the time it was averted."

"That's it!" Thomas yelled out, dropping his fist into his other waiting hand as a gesture of assurance. "It makes sense! All of that damage caused by Belphemon, coupled with that of the Destiny Stones of Ken's world…" he turned towards the child of kindness at this point. "It would be a perfect window of opportunity for something to start traveling between dimensions!"

"Exactly. Since then, we've sensed its energy emanating from a specific portal: the ones that our guests came out of. That is where our suspicions arose," Azulongmon clarified, Ken and Regan tensing themselves at that news. "So that means that now…" Regan began the sentence, letting Ken finish it, though he did so begrudgingly. "Now it's in OUR dimension…" he tried to keep calm, looking down at Wormmon, who was visibly shaking. The Sovereign nodded. "Precisely. It seems the stage is set. Are you willing to take this challenge to protect our worlds?" Ken managed to compose himself upon remembering another crucial fact. "Of course… the more Digidestined, the merrier," he said to the cries of encouragement and agreement from the other soldiers, Kazu and Kenta's being decidedly the loudest.

"Wait a minute…"

"Well put," Regan added from behind the navy-haired boy.

"Wait a minute…" one voice from the crowd began to get progressively louder.

"WAIT A MINUTE!" Jeri's shy but shrill voice silenced the group, them directing their attention to her. She slowly walked away from them as though in a trance. Bringing her D-Arc close to her face, the static that had been constantly present since her partner's death began to glow a bright orange-yellow once more, as it did in her escape from the D-Reaper. Lowering it brought a single egg into view, giving off an identical radiance. "What is it, Jeri? What do you see?" Takato tried to ask without sounding frantic. He took several steps toward her, but Jeri raised her free hand behind her, stopping her friend where he stood. "This egg… it seems so familiar," she explained barely above a whisper, kneeling down next to it. "I don't know how, but I've… seen it before…"

She extended her hands toward it tentatively, hoping for the best. At the slightest touch, the egg burst apart, revealing a small, still-glowing ball with a tail, an In-Training digimon that kept its form not even a second before shifting its shape. Jeri had taken a step or two back out of surprise when the egg hatched, but she crawled that small distance back over to it as the baby changed. The glow finally dimmed, revealing a digimon resembling a tiger-like version of Gaomon. He lacked a bandana, boxing gloves, or other apparel of the sort, and had a small dagger strapped to his waist.

"I've missed you, Jeri," the newcomer, or at least he looked the part, softly spoke in a slightly higher, but still more-than-recognizable voice. Jeri's floodgates then opened once more as she half-collapsed into her long-lost friend. "Leomon… Leomon, I knew ever since then, that you weren't gone; I just knew it…I missed you so much…" she uttered between sobs, continuing to speak with him as the other Tamers gathered around them, attempting not to disturb the pair, but giving them their congratulations nonetheless. Ryo opened his D-Arc to study Leomon's new form. The projection appeared almost immediately.

(AN: Since, to my knowledge, there hasn't been any real source upon which actual digimon is Leomon's rookie form, I decided to make one up. So, I made him a sort of Mini-Leomon with a size and features comparable to Gaomon, just with tiger stripes and the like. I'm sure you can picture it pretty well. Admittedly, I'm not good with long-winded descriptions of characters' looks. I personally don't like that; it makes the pacing of something slow down far too much. Though that's just for a few novels and such; it just makes it boring after a while. I know it's an important extension of the character's traits, but sometimes it just stretches on into excess. Oh, and if I ended up stealing the name of another OC digimon out there ANYWHERE in this fic, I'm truly sorry. I didn't read or see your stuff if you did, and it's purely coincidental. I just didn't want Leomon to go from hatching to champion off the bat, but I didn't want to make up a Fresh-level digimon either and have to deal with an entire evolution line. Hatching to rookie isn't exactly unheard-of anyway.)

"Ligermon: Rookie-Level. A Beast King Vaccine-Type Digimon. Attacks include 'Beast Flame Twister' and 'Roaring Blade,'" he read to himself, putting the device away. He watched as Calumon flew around the group of Tamers shouting out cheers.

Zoe approached Yoshi during the celebration. "What about you? Wasn't there another member of your squad?" she asked with a twinge of optimism, seeing as Azulongmon mentioned that the other partners were eventually cast as guardians for the Blooming Rose. Yoshi heaved a sigh. "I figured he'd be able to notice our arrival. But seeing as we don't really have time to waste, I suppose he just can't come," she said in a sort of teasing voice, though partly regretful. She looked to the sky as though looking for him to appear. "He's probably too busy showing off his skills to every big name of the Digiworld to deal with us right off the bat, anyway,"

"I wouldn't be too certain of that, my dear," another voice with mystically enhanced speech interjected, taking the attention away from Ligermon for the time being. Azulongmon backed away several feet, giving another lower makeshift bow as the new figure approached. "Welcome, My Lady," he greeted her.

"Ophanimon!" the warriors shouted to the armored angel in the sky, who returned their call with a raising of her javelin as it appeared in her hand. Without warning, another sort of barrier carrying other beings inside it swooped around from behind her; this time, a trio. One human gave a short wave while the two digimon gave similar signs of nonverbal greetings. The barrier dissipated when it came closer to the ground.

"Yo," Marcus Damon and Agumon said in their usual show-offy way at the same time.

The responses from the other DATS members were put on hold, since their attention was more focused on the taller digimon by his side. A feral digimon drabbed in an open and flowing cloak with a chain hitched onto one collar and matching black slacks. Bands laced around his wrists accented upon his intimidating demeanor along with the massive x-shaped scar on his torso. Finally, he lifted his head, shaded by the visor he wore, though his vast blue eyes were plainly visible, a stark contrast to his long white mane. He fiddled with the reed he kept between his teeth. Spencer led the group of Savers over to the last remaining pieces of the DATS crew.

"BanchouLeomon… how are you alive?" Spencer questioned for them, his voice sounding as though he were in a daze, despite his face refusing to mirror it. "My life was restored by Drasil, just as yours was. I was simply reborn in the Digital World, and you in the Human World, so we had no chance to meet. It was only a matter of time before I met up with your son again, and eventually these guardians here," he explained before extending his hand toward his old friend. "It's been a long time, Spencer," he said with a smirk. The original savior took it with earnest. "That it has," he retorted.

Thomas made his way to the front of the group that addressed the new arrivals, straight up to Marcus with a smug look of his own. "I was beginning to think you wouldn't show up at all," he joked, Marcus returning his friend's expression. "You didn't think I was going to let you do this without me, did you?" he asked rhetorically, simply giving the same gesture BanchouLeomon just gave Spencer, Thomas returning it in kind.

(AN: Yes, I know that's a blatant rip from the 'Forever Red' episode of Power Rangers Wild Force. It was on purpose. This is supposed to be sentai-esque anyway. CAN IT.)

"Ophanimon has pretty much brought us up to speed on the current situation," Marcus stated after releasing from Thomas' grip. "But she hasn't told me very much about any of you, and I'm still sort of confused as to what happened during a few specific problems the world had…" he explained, showing his embarrassment a little. J.P. came up to him. "We'll get all that out of the way while we're traveling in the ship," he said, pointing towards the massive Grani.

"Yes, that is preferable," Ophanimon followed up JP's comment. "There may be little time, so you must leave as soon as you possibly can," she beckoned to the soldiers, now twenty-nine strong, who, their final puzzle pieces fallen in place, directed their attention to the celestial digimon and her sovereign comrade. She turned towards the warriors first.

"Warriors of Legend… are you prepared?"

The six warriors stepped forward to receive their blessings from her. "We've been ready ever since we left the Digital World, just as we were before Lucemon," Takuya responded, holding up his D-Tector toward the one who granted it to him, not even flinching as his and Koji's gave off a glow and evolved into the forms that allowed their Unity Evolutions. She nodded to them and moved toward the Tamers next.

"Tamers and your partners… are YOU prepared?"

Takato, still seen as the leader for the group that destroyed the Chaos, led his friends forward as well. "As ready as we've ever been. With everyone here, we CAN'T lose! We just can't!" with that, the rest of the Tamers gave another hearty cheer. Ophanimon extended them the same courtesy she gave the warriors and moved on to the DATS team.

"Destined of the Human World… are YOU prepared?"

Marcus walked closer and held up his fist, which was, at once, aflame with his digisoul. "We've saved two worlds before… what's a few more?!" he boasted with similar shouts of encouragement from behind him. Finally, the celestial digimon floated over towards the newcomers Ken, Wormmon, and Regan.

"Digidestined of the other worlds… are you prepared to lead this exposition for the chosen warriors of our world?"

Ken bowed to her before responding. "Yes, we are… Regan, are you with us?" he asked his friend as he stood next to him. "Of course. The digidestined of Ken's world as well as yours shall not fail. I'll see to it," he said confidently, the crest of life appearing on his hand, the diamond-star surrounding a sort of cross, looped at its top. Ophanimon nodded once more. "The time to exchange stories with us is over. The time for action is now. We're certain you will be triumphant," she declared.

With that statement, the team started their way back to the ship. A select few of the group looked back at the two of many guardians that stood and watched their departure. "Don't worry. If we encounter trouble in your absence, we will be able to defend ourselves. This is your battle, not ours," Azulongmon offered. There were no objections, and the group chatted amongst themselves as they boarded the ship. Calumon floated up to its side and waved at one of the windows. "Bye-bye," he said reluctantly, his ears retracting.

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Grani II was significantly more crowded with the inclusion of the partner digimon of various shapes and sizes, but still more than capable of comfortably accommodating them. The ship lumbered for only a moment as it took off, bound for the portal whence it came, their destination being the portal in the real world that Ken and Regan appeared from, which would lead to the alternate Digiworld that was powered by the crests that Ken shared with his friends. To pass the time, the group once again recounted their past adventures to the most recent additions to their ranks and familiarized themselves with the ship and those they left behind back home. With the use of the updated communication device built into Grani, they were able to fully contact Hypnos and update them on their progress.

Although Regan was becoming progressively less reclusive with the rest of the group, he was still by himself for larger periods than others in the ship. Takato once again approached him in an attempt to get him to open up about his past a little more. "You know, Regan, I was curious about something," he said, sitting down next to him. He was more familiar with the goggle-head, but still reacted a little slowly. "What?"

"I've seen you with that sword, and you've used it with our digivices. But, you said that it was made as a sort of container of data of your partner. I was wondering whether you had an actual… more conventional digivice, so to speak," he asked somewhat hesitantly, trying not to push the subject of Lizomon more than need be. Regan picked into a pocket of his jacket and took out a device. It looked very similar to the D3 model, with only a few small details out of place. "I only carry it with me given the chance I find him again. Other than that, it's almost useless aside from traveling through portals," he explained. Takato leaned in closer, focusing on the static-filled screen of the digivice.

(AN to Digital-Warkiller: I had completely forgotten about your actual digivice design before I went back to your artwork and checked it, and I meant to apply it here. So, in essence I sort of screwed up with the final scene of the last chapter using the replacement gear rather than the actual digivice. My bad. A minor detail, to be sure, but one that I felt I needed to address.)

"How did you end up going to Ken's world, anyway?"

"It was sort of an accident. I think it was just because Ken and I were using a portal situated in the same location of the Digiworld in two different realities. Remember his dark spore?" he asked, pointing to the back of his neck, indicating where the spore would be if he were implanted with one. "He uses it to open portals to other dimensions. That power just ended up passing through the portal to my side, and… poof, there I was. It was pretty weird," he said, chuckling to himself, Takato joining in his laughter.

"I know how that is. Aside from my adventures with Guilmon, whenever something mildly extraordinary happens to me, it happens in a very uninteresting way. This one time, I was flipping this hot dough in my kitchen, and a piece of it separated and hit me right in the face! When I went to school the next day, everyone was wondering how I got burned, expecting some sort of big, exciting story, but I didn't have one," he recounted, getting another, harder laugh out of Regan. "I can understand that… the way I see it, it just makes me feel more normal when things like that happen. After all this 'saving the world' stuff, it's nice just to feel normal again for a while, don't you think?" he asked.

"I believe it," Takato responded sincerely.

The two continued to talk until the ship alerted them to their location. A large portion of the group went to the bridge to observe the situation. They were once again in the human world, hovering in front of the small structure that was Guilmon's pen. "All right, here we go again," Ken called out to the group, holding his dark digivice to the receiver on the control panel. Immediately, the D3 began to glow along with the scar covering his dark spore on his neck. He struggled and began to sweat as seconds past, but it wasn't long before the ship itself began to emit Ken's violet energy into the cave and the dancing white and black squares began to grow. They continued to expand until they completely surrounded the hideout, and then, all at once, it was encompassed with an image of a familiar sight: File Island.

Ken lowered his digivice and grunted as he fell to his knees, panting from exhaustion. Several of the others jogged over to help him up, congratulating him. "All right… now, Takato. Get us through. After that, we'll find a place to land and see what to do next," the child of kindness instructed him. "Right…" he said, approaching the panel with the Red Card in hand.

"Digi-Modify!" he cried, slashing the card through. "Matrix Shield, Activate!" the first part of the task complete, Grani II was instantly covered in from bow to stern in a glossy emerald energy field, hopefully doing just as Shibumi had said it would do. "Now, Grani! Go inside, and find a safe spot to touch down once we're through!" he ordered the ship.

"Command Accepted," Grani's voice sounded throughout the ship, and once again, they were off. After slowly slipping through the portal, the image of File Island disappeared, and the portal itself shrunk down to its normal size once more.

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After another short venture, Grani landed safely on a beach of File Island's shore. After securing the ship from outsiders and beginning the first wave of culture shock by stepping out onto the sand, the group made their way inland in hopes of gaining information. The way that data travels throughout the DigiWorld, even if something unusual was happening straight across the globe, chances are they would know. They weren't able to gain anything useful, seeing the situation in the DigiWorld as all but normal. Dejected, eventually the group as a whole returned to the landing site. Marcus tosses a rock into the ocean, which skips about four times before going below the surface for good.

"How can we find this thing if there isn't even any signs to POINT to it?!" he grumbled, kicking into the sand before wandering to a corner of Grani's hull to lean upon it. "We can't just wait!" he offered towards Ken, who was sitting on a small boulder, apparently deep in thought. "Maybe that's the only choice we have… we can't just split up and try to track it down, if one of us DID, we'd be sitting ducks…"

"For the love of… who says?! When I get my hands on him, I'll take care of him myself!" Marcus continued to boast and ramble before Thomas walked from his side and jabbed him straight in the gut, forcing him to his knees. "The SOVEREIGN said, or did you forget to listen?! If it was enough to scare the guardians of both Digital Worlds and threaten the balance of reality itself, I'd say it would take more than a flailing of your fist to beat him. You of all people should know that taking him on alone won't work!" Thomas initially calmed his voice down in as he continued to speak, but at the last statement, the volume of his voice rose again. This cut off Marcus, who was getting up, about to launch a counterattack. Instantly, he remembered the battle against Drasil; the support of his friends, the Royal Knights, countless other people and digimon alike donating their energy to push the Digital World back into position.

Marcus lowered his fist, but didn't dare wound his pride further by saying another word. Takuya then approached Ken to pursue the matter further. "So, is that it? We're just going to wait until some sort of sign comes?" he asked, Ken slowly nodding in response. "We have little choice," he said, pushing himself up. "We just need a way to know when that happens… but what?"

"Hey, how could you forget about me that quickly?"

The group as a whole doubled around to view a single middle-aged man drabbed in a cloak walking towards them. The appearance of this cheerful-looking man infected the children and their comrades with his optimistic personality. (AN: For some reason, I had a tough time deciding whether Gennai would appear here in his aged form or not. I admit, I don't remember exactly HOW he regained his youth in season two, and frankly I don't care. Owikawa's release of energy could have brought him back to 'normal,' I suppose, but it's really a non-issue, isn't it? Oh well. Middle-aged it is.)

"Gennai!"

"My, my, my… you certainly gathered up quite a boatload of Digidestined on your little field trip, didn't you Ken?" he observed, moving slowly through the aforementioned army, looking between the shapes and sizes of each and every one of them. He then began to stare at Grani II as he came closer to it. "And in such a vessel, too… very impressive…" he lingered for a few moments before addressing the group again. "I'll hold down the fort here. You should go to the real world and inform the others about what's happened, and… what's to come," he finished explaining with an emphasis that sounded almost foreboding. "You may need this ship to travel the real world if worse comes to worse, so use it," he offered. Ken approached him.

"Um… may I ask how we're going to get this gigantic ship into the real world without… well… totally destroying something?" he inquired, anticipating some sort of ironic answer from the digidestined mentor. "Ha ha… think about it. What did you do when digimon were taking over before?" it took a moment, but without a word, Ken immediately went to work and e-mailed Izzy to bring his laptop to a wide-open area to prepare the Digital Gate. It took a bit of convincing for him to actually do it, but after some help from Gennai, Ken used passed the gate-opening powers of his D3 into Grani, which allowed the ship to pass into a nearby receptacle. From there, they would navigate to Izzy's coordinates for a surprise he would likely never forget. (AN: I dunno what to call those things… they're not really portals, they're just, like… random objects.)

A brainstorm hit Takato as the ship started its way toward the parallel world, and he ran for the cargo hold. "Just one more thing to do…"

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MEANWHILE. (lol Parody Rangers in Space… GO WATCH IT.)

"He didn't give you ANY reason for this?" Joe asked Izzy yet again, Gomamon perched on his shoulder.

"No, but Gennai told me I didn't have a choice, so I just thought this would be the best place," the child of knowledge assured him, positioning the laptop away from himself and the others where they stood in their local park.

"Well, if Gennai says so, we have no reason not to," Sora tried to justify the situation. Biyomon nodded.

"Sora's right, Gennai is always well-informed!" Tentomon added.

Few of the others had anything else to say as they watched and waited for whatever Gennai's "Big Surprise," as he put it, would be. Nearly all of the team was present, partners and all. Suddenly, another spectacle caught the group's attention.

"Heeeeey! Sorry we're late!"

The high, almost squeaky voice was impossible to mistake. Mimi, pink hair and all, was seen running towards them with Palmon by her side. She was breathing hard as she arrived on the scene. "Does that make everyone?" the plant digimon wondered, looking about. Davis and Veemon waved while Cody and Armadillmon just looked back and smiled. T.K. spoke for the group, Patamon perched on his hat. "You're not that late," he said kindly. Kari and Gatomon approached them next. "You just live a bit further away than us right now, that's all," she added.

(AN: I'm having Mimi live in Japan for a while for this fic. I don't know. Pick your reasons. Parental divorce, recent tragedy, things just plain didn't work out, whatever works for you. You guys are more original than I am, lol. It just works better. It's a full team and the continuity is hard enough to place as it is. An additional note: the rest of the original digidestined already know Regan, if you've been paying attention to the story.)

"Yeah, so don't worry about it," Yolei helped to brush away the guilt, Hawkmon gesturing similarly with his wing.

"Hey, wait a minute… I can hear the gate opening!" Matt yelled out to gain the attention of the others. Gabumon sniffed the air, apparently analyzing the gate itself.

"Whatever's coming through with Ken and Regan, it's big!" the horned digimon alarmed the group.

"Big?! Well, I guess that explains one thing, huh?" Agumon confirmed Gennai's surprise as the laptop began to emit a bright light.

"Here it comes!" Tai cried, and almost at his word, in a scene that looked like the computer regurgitating living matter, a large craft in the shape of a beast appeared. It circled the area as it grew to its full size, finally resting atop the nearby hill, facing away from them at an angle just so much that they could make out the 'face' of the ship.

"What have they been DOING?" Joe tried to bring a bit of light-heartedness to the sudden arrival.

"Is that a Digimon or a ship?" Sora asked the obvious question for the group.

"It LOOKS like it could be a fusion of the two…" Izzy analyzed even from his distance from the craft.

"I was about to say the same thing, Izzy. It still looks like it's alive even though it's not moving… like it's sleeping," Cody offered. Further input was put on hold when a part of the ship opened. From its bowels first emerged faces the group knew very well. Ken and Regan approached them, accepting their greetings, though they were somewhat meager in comparison to the questions that were raised pertaining to how they arrived.

"What's it for, Ken?" Davis had his turn to ask the question on everyone's mind. "Did you find out what we should be doing to repair the Destiny Stone?"

"Well… sort of. We need to battle a new enemy when that time comes. That's basically the main gist of it… but…" Ken trailed off, unsure of how to continue. Luckily, Regan was able to back him up. "We'll explain everything shortly. What we CAN tell you now is that it's not just us that'll be fighting. We have the Digidestined of a whole other world on our side!" he exclaimed, stirring up a few gasps from the others. With a wave of his hand, many other figures began a veritable charge out of the ship towards their new comrades. As they approached, the teams separated into their respective positions that their previously fought with. Their leaders stood in front of the group, each holding a flag; flags made and altered by Takato and the other Tamers during the trip. They all were plastered from top to bottom with caricatures of the humans and digimon that walked behind it.

Regan moved out of the way to introduce the newcomers further, the rest of the teens looking on utterly stunned. "The other dimension we visited held another Human and Digital World, both of which have been under calamity many times over, each having a group of digidestined stand and defend them. It was from their world that this new enemy was spawned, and now they're all willing to help us!" the child of life had trouble containing his excitement as the soldiers he spoke of gave off a cheer. Takato once again waved the flag emblazoned with the title of 'Digimon Tamers,' while Takuya bore the banner of 'Digimon Warriors,' and Marcus held the name of 'Digimon Data Squad' high above his head.

Still, the children of the crests were left flabbergasted at the sheer size of this new army that Ken and Regan had somehow amassed in this short time period. Tai, however, managed to muster the courage to stand alongside his two friends that brought them to him.

"Where do I start? You guys are AWESOME."

That made both the digidestined burst into laughter somewhat out of pride, but mostly from the way Tai presented the statement itself. Regan regained his composure faster, and gestured toward the group again.

"Well, don't be shy, guys. Come check 'em out."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In what they hoped to be their last 'explanation session,' and placing the flags in a symmetric pattern around the landing site, the digidestined gave the crest-bearers a tour of the ship. All the while, new discoveries were made about each of the soldiers to those they were unfamiliar with. Kazu and Kenta, at the moment, were nowhere to be found, thanks to Rika. After they went into the ship, Rika 'took care of them' so they wouldn't badger the warriors about their personal lives, 'sentencing' them to watching the younger children.

"So, your partners only exist inside that digivice?" Cody inquired as he extended his hand towards JP's D-Tector. "Well… yes and no. They're just spirits. We… that is, my friends and I, just assume their forms," the warrior of thunder explained. "Really? That's a weird kind of power…" he responded half in-thought, quirking Zoe's brow. "Um… you're kidding, right? Doesn't your world have Tokusatsu shows or anything?" It was Cody's turn to look confused. "Toku-what now?"

"You must be the Warrior of Light," Kari guessed as she approached Koji. "How did you know that?" he asked, surprised at the Child of Light's sudden appearance. "My crest gives me a sixth sense to detect forces of light and darkness…" she paused, pointing towards Koichi, who was standing a few feet away chatting with T.K. "He must be the Warrior of Darkness, too. But… it's strange. It's not an evil darkness," this notation caught the attention of the other two, and brought them over. "You're quite right," Koichi explained. "From my own experience, I've discovered that darkness is only truly evil if it's tainted by an impure source," T.K. nodded. "He's right, Kari. You should know that; just look at Ken," Kari looked over at him across the room, immediately remembering when he had sealed away Daemon thanks to the use of his Dark Digivice.

"Biomerging, you say?!" Izzy nearly demanded of Henry, Terriermon quivering on his shoulder, mimicking his tamer's uncertainty. "Fusing yourself with your partner to warp-digivolve to mega-level… prodigious! How did you obtain that level of power?" Henry's eyes were trying to avoid contact with Izzy. "Um… I… don't know? It just sort of happened. It's similar to how you guys attained your new levels; just as you grew closer. I'm sure that one doesn't need to necessarily be a tamer or have any specific digivice in order to pull it off," Henry tried to explain to him as best he could, since it was true he had no real idea of the actual prerequisites of biomerging, unlike the use of different cards for the levels that preceded them. "Hmm… that's a good theory. I wonder what I'd look like if I merged with Tentomon…" at that moment, the insectoid digimon next to him coughed on the piece of food he was eating, mirroring the disgusted expression on Terriermon's face.

"Ooh, who's that little digimon you have there?" the innocent Mimi asked, looking at the smaller form of Leomon next Jeri. "My name is Ligermon. I look forward to fighting with you," he said in a voice lower than Mimi expected to hear. "Y-you're Mimi, right? I'm Jeri; it's nice to meet you," she greeted, extending her hand, but received a hug instead, feeling squished in between herself, Mimi, and Ligermon. "Ooh, you're both just so cute! I know we'll have a great time!"

"You remind me of T.K. with that hat of yours," Joe said, rubbing the top of Tommy's head. The slightly younger teen pushed it off. "Hey, don't do that! I'm not a kid, you know!" he yelled just loudly enough to not catch the eyes of the others. Joe just chuckled. "Sorry about that, then. You're right; I can tell just from looking at you that you've grown up a lot more on the inside than you have on the outside." Gomamon nodded in agreement. "That's right! You can trust Joe on that one!"

"Hey, cool, you have a Biyomon too!" Sora exclaimed when she came over to Kristy. Spencer gave a look of surprise as both the Biyomon fluttered above the small group. "I guess they like each other already," Kristy noticed, giggling. "Yeah, I suppose she has that affect on people. She learned from the master," she responded, getting a blank stare from Spencer and a look of skepticism from Keenan. "Somehow I don't think that as true as she say…"

"So the three of you are police officers? That's so cool!" Yolei congratulated the female DATS trio, who only had Lalamon outside of their digivices, the Chessmon still accustomed to their time as servants. "Well, it's not exactly the best work. We've only been working there for a few months so far," Miki explained, Megumi adding a nod of her own. "Yoshi's the only one of us who gets any sort of patrol shifts; we're stuck at the station until someone calls," she mentioned as Sampson approached. "Which is quite often, actually, so it's not much to complain about," he added. "I hear that; I don't know what I'd do with myself if I was in a dead-end desk job," Yolei explained jokingly.

"How's that band thing coming along?" Rika asked Matt as he made the rounds, who shrugged. "Eh, it's not really going much of anywhere. I might just stop the gigs as a whole and just jam for fun. It doesn't really feel like it when we're up on stage anymore," he thought out loud. Ryo gave him a sympathetic look. "Hey, if it isn't doing it for you anymore, get out of there; that's what I did with the card game in our world. Well, for the most part," he added at the last minute, remembering that while he bowed out of competitive play, he still collected cards and played with the other tamers every now and again. "A Digimon Card Game? Oh, this I HAVE to see!" Matt said in a way that sounded sarcastic, though he was still genuinely interested.

"OK, OK, so run this through for me again," Davis repeated, first pointing at Takato. "You're a Tamer who can fuse with digimon…" he then moved to Takuya. "You can turn into a digital spirit warrior…" next was Marcus, who stood next to Regan. "And you're just… well… a lot like Tai?" The Child of Life sighed. "Not quite, but… I suppose that's close enough," Veemon then interjected into the conversation. "I don't think it really matters that much; either way, they'll all help us out pretty well!"

"Somehow I knew that you the goggle-heads would gravitate away from the pack…" Tai changed the subject as he walked over to the group. "Well, those of you WITH goggles, anyway," he finished off, noting both Regan and Marcus' lack of headgear, as well as his own. "I've been going around, so I've heard a good amount of what you guys have done, and I have to say I'm impressed," the original leader complemented, ushering a nervous chuckle from the lead tamer. "Well, I know we're not really digidestined by your standards, but we did our best," the humble warrior said, forcing a harder laugh from Tai. "Not digidestined? Come on. Tamers, Warriors, Secret Agents…" he paused to smile warmly at the group to show his sincerity.

"Sounds a lot like Digidestined to me, crest or no crest."

Tai's beaming expression was contagious as it spread across the group leaders in front of him. It was at that point that he noticed Agumon, and not his own partner. "You know, Marcus, that's really cool how your Agumon has those bands… he looks like a sort of 'Neo' Agumon," he explained his curiosity. Marcus, however, took offense to it. "What's that supposed to mean? You trying to say that your Agumon is any better?!" Tai was about to recoil in fear, not meaning to insult him or Agumon, but was interrupted by the latter of the two. "Wait a minute, boss; he kind of has a point. 'NeoAgumon…' has a nice ring to it. I like it!" the band-wearing Agumon tried to quell the conflict with an acceptance of the term for himself. (AN: I always jokingly called Marcus' Agumon 'NeoAgumon' because of his vast differences between Tai's Agumon, so I figured that I'd try and get the name to stick here for the sake of... not having 'Sorry I meant the other one' moments. The two Biyomons have a similar situation, yes, but not nearly as important to differentiate, seeing as the appearances between those two are nearly the same, unlike the Agumons. I'll settle that discrepancy in the next chapter.)

Putting the development on hold, Takato suddenly left the group momentarily. "Oh, hold on a minute; I'll be right back," he said, and within a minute's time returned holding a folded piece of cloth, presenting it to Tai and Davis. "Well, since we're in this together, its only fair that you guys had one for yourself, so we made this for you," the tamer explained, allowing the two of them to unfold the cloth, or rather, unfurl, since as they opened it, they looked in admiration at the flag that was made in their honor. It was in the same fashion as the other flags, with caricatures of all the crest-bearers and their partners scattered across it, including Regan. The top third was left blank of faces, and taking of the space were drawings of the ten crests, and above it were the words 'Digital Adventurers,' as a testament to what they indeed did in their Digital World. Takuya spoke for the others. "In our world, your story was called 'Digimon Adventure,' so… well, we thought it fit," he told them, trying to back up the title. Davis and Tai just looked at each other before addressing the group again.

"It's fine… I wouldn't have it any other way," Tai proclaimed.

Minutes later, that last flag was planted in front of Grani II along with the others. The preparations were now complete, and the world would know that they were ready for anything.


End file.
